After months of intensive research and success at local and state competitions, three Tennessee students won awards last week during the National History Day (NHD) competition held on the University of Maryland’s College Park campus.
In all, 43 students from Tennessee participated in the annual competition in which students are judged by the quality of their history projects. Projects were based on this year’s annual theme of Innovation in History: Impact and Change and were entered in five categories: museum style exhibit, interpretive website, multimedia documentary, dramatic performance, and research paper.
“This phenomenal group of students from Tennessee conducted thorough research and produced high quality projects to become the best History Day students in the state of Tennessee,” said Kelly Wilkerson, state coordinator for the Tennessee History Day program. “The students, their teachers and parents have much of which to be proud.”
“The delegation of Tennessee students did a great job of representing our state in this year’s National History Day competition,” said Secretary of State Tre Hargett, whose office was one of the co-sponsors of Tennessee History Day this year. “I have personally met many of these students – and knowing how smart and ambitious they are, it gives me great confidence about our state’s future.”
The awards were presented during a ceremony at the end of last week's competition. Tennessee’s winners were:
* Emma Grace Thompson, a home school student from Tellico Plains, who took second place in the Junior Individual Documentary category for her project on “Innovation Ends Isolation: The Effect of the Telephone on a Small Appalachian Community.” Teacher: Sharron Thompson.
* Dillan Edwards, a student at Mountain View Elementary in Etowah who took the Outstanding State Entry prize in the Junior Division for his exhibit on “The Jungle.” Teacher: Kimberly Powers
* Caitlyn Sudkamp, a home school student from Signal Mountain, who took the Outstanding State Entry prize in the Senior Division for her exhibit on “A Matter of Time: John Harrison’s Sea Clocks.” Teacher: Linda Neuhoff.
The NHD program annually engages more than 500,000 students in grades six through 12 from 50 states, the District of Columbia, Guam, American Samoa and Department of Defense schools.
Each fall, students nationwide begin the year-long National History Day program, competing in a series of history contests in their local communities and states. The top students in each category are selected for participation in the national contest.
In Tennessee, district competitions take place in Knoxville (sponsored by the East Tennessee Historical Society), Chattanooga (sponsored by the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga), Murfreesboro (sponsored by Middle Tennessee State University) and Memphis (sponsored by the University of Memphis.) The state competition is held in Nashville at Legislative Plaza and is sponsored by the Tennessee Historical Society.
More than just a day, NHD encourages year-round learning by allowing participating students to choose their own topics of study and research from original sources based on a particular theme. This year’s theme was Innovation in History: Impact and Change. Students present their work in a variety of ways by creating museum-style exhibits, video documentaries, dramatic performances, interpretive websites or traditional research papers.
More than 300 historians and other education professionals evaluate the work of over 2,000 students at the National History Day contest. More than $250,000 in scholarships and cash prizes were awarded at the ceremony today. To see a full list of winners, visit the National History Day website at www.nationalhistoryday.org.
For more information about the History Day program in Tennessee or the program’s state- level sponsor, the Tennessee Historical Society, visit our website at http://www.tennesseehistory.org/historyday.htm or contact Kelly Wilkerson at 615-741-8934 or by email at historyday@tennesseehistory.org.
Here is a complete list of Tennessee students who participated in the competition in College Park:
Junior Individual Exhibit
1) Dillan Edwards of Mountain View Elementary in Etowah for his project on “The Jungle.” Teacher: Kimberly Powers.
2) Tyler Hounshell of New Center Elementary in Sevierville for his project on “Proving the Past: The Impact of Radiocarbon Dating.” Teacher: Rebecca Byrd.
Junior Group Exhibit
3) Caroline Rader & McKynlea Cable of New Center Elementary in Sevierville for their project on “Fight for the Right: The Impact of the 19th Amendment.” Teacher:Rebecca Byrd.
4) Stetson Spain, Patrick Perry, Jesse Holt, and Justin Yates of Jo Byrns Middle School in Cedar Hill for their project on “From the Farmhand to the Farm Machine: Cotton Picking Machine.” Teacher: Eric Hagan.
Junior Individual Documentary
5) Emma Grace Thompson, a homeschool student from Coker Creek, for her project on “Innovation Ends Isolation: The Effect of the Telephone on a Small Appalachian Community.” Teacher: Sharron Thompson.
6) Miriam Ryburne of Greenway School in Knoxville for her project on “Peace Through Children: CISV, An Innovation with Global Impact.” Teacher: Liz Shugart.
Junior Group Documentary
7) Sophia Henderson, Graham Hardison, Brandon Babbitt, and Riley Clem of Episcopal School of Knoxville for their project on “Women in the Workforce: How World War II Changed American Women Forever.” Teacher: Ellen Petree.
8) Anne Batcheller and Alexa Ewan of Episcopal School of Knoxville for their project on “The Creation of Labor Laws After the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire.” Teacher: Ellen Petree.
Junior Individual Performance
9) Kiyoko Reidy of Greenway School in Knoxville for her project on “All That Jazz: An American Innovation with an Impact on Music and Culture.” Teacher: Liz Shugart.
Junior Group Performance
10) Ashleanne Zachary and Logan Craig of First Baptist Academy in Knoxville for their project on “Songs of Freedom.” Teacher: Darrell Vandergriff.
Junior Website, Individual and Group Combined
11) Tristan Hightower of Concord Christian School in Knoxville for his project on “The Atomic Bomb Disseminates America’s Position: United States Poised for Victory.” Teacher: Tammy Lightholder.
12) Logan Garrett of Vonore Middle School for his project on “Code Talkers: The Code that Could Not Be Cracked.” Teacher: Justin Woody.
Junior Individual Paper
13) Ruth Simberloff of Greenway School in Knoxville for her project on “In Danger of Extinction: Impact and Innovation of the Endangered Species Act.” Teacher: Liz Shugart.
14) Abby Huber of Greenway School in Knoxville for her project on “The Montessori Method: An Innovation in Education.” Teacher: Liz Shugart.
Senior Individual Exhibit
15) Caitlyn Sudkamp of Walden Home School in Signal Mountain for her project on “A Matter of Time: John Harrison’s Sea Clocks.” Teacher: Linda Neuhoff.
16) Jeremy Meister of First Assembly Christian School in Cordova for his project on “It Came Like a Flash of Lightning- The Innovation of Nikola Tesla.” Teacher: Scott Johnson.
Senior Group Exhibit
17) Sarah Stokely, Jessi Reed, and Katie Caughron of Cocke County High School in Newport for their project on “The Cotton Gin.” Teacher: Clay Blazer.
18) Celeste McAlpin-Levitt, Rebekah Rhea, Katie Smith, and Madeline Stinnett of West High School in Knoxville for their project on “Still Standing: Leg Braces and AFO’s.” Teacher: Candace Greer.
Senior Individual Documentary
19) Hannah Clevenger of Gatlinburg-Pittman High School for her project on “Foxfire: Preserving the Past, Changing the Future.” Teacher: Rebecca Byrd.
20) Caroline Rhodes of Lebanon High School for her project on “The Polio Vaccine: More Than a Syringe.” Teacher: Carrie Pfeiffer.
Senior Group Documentary
21) Maranda Vandergriff & Lydia Taylor, homeschool students from Oak Ridge for their project on “Talking Leaves: Innovation of the Written Language.” Teacher: Katie Vandergriff & Lisa Taylor.
22) Brandon Holt & Cindy Ma of Martin Luther King Magnet- Pearl High School in Nashville for their project on “The Nashville Sit-Ins: An Innovation in Non-Violent Demonstrations.” Teacher: Fred Artibee.
Senior Website, Individual and Group Combined
23) Jason Van der Merwe, a homeschool student from Knoxville, for his project on “The Proximity Fuze: A Killer Innovation Which Saved Lives.” Teacher: Meryl Van der Merwe.
24) Alex Livesay and Rachael Bakowicz of St. Agnes Academy for their project on “Frank Lloyd Wright: Innovations in Architecture.” Teacher: Christina Lesh.
Senior Individual Paper
25) Savannah Lockwood of West High School in Knoxville for her project on “The Electric Chair: Sparks of Controversy.” Teacher: Candace Greer.
Senior Individual Performance
26) Michelle Woodruff of McMinn Central High School in Etowah for her project on “Margaret Sanger and the Birth Control Movement.” Teacher: Teri Blair.
27) Brandie McConkey of Sequoyah High School in Madisonville for her project on “AC/DC: The Story of Tesla.” Teacher: Lance McConkey.