Students Show Off Research Skills With History Day Projects

ST. CLOUD (WJON News) -- Over 200 Central Minnesota junior high and high school students were at St. Cloud State University to celebrate history. The students were presenting their Regional History Day Exhibits in the Atwood Memorial Center.

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The displays ranged from World War 2 Scrap Diving to the Delano Grape Strike, to Title IX. Kaylee Buck took part in History Day when she was in middle school and is now a mentor. She says the skills she learned in History Day are invaluable to her now:

"It taught me how to research, it taught me how to kind of take a, take a topic and put it through my own lens while still telling facts and giving the important information."

Bucks says it also taught her how to write a bibliography and cite sources.

Delano 8th graders Lilah Hohlen, Halle Stegemann, and Ellery Schwehr decided to do a project on Miep Gies. Hohlen says they learned a lot working on their exhibit:

"Miep Gies, she hid Anne Frank and Anne's family during the holocaust. She worked for Otto Frank for a while, before they decided to go into hiding."

Schwer says the project taught her how to narrow a topic down:

"For some classes, I put too much detail into some writings and this helped me show, because we have a limit of 500 words, if it's not super important and if the story makes sense without it then you don't need it in your paper."

National History Day in Minnesota is a research program that builds communication skills and college readiness for middle and high school students.

Winners will advance to State History Day on April 27th at the Minneapolis Convention Center and are eligible to compete at National History Day in Washington D.C. in June.

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