STEM in National History Day

I was interested in which National History Day themes tended to generate STEM-related or arts-related projects. I had access to the full lists of national contest entries from 2016-2018 and the lists of finalists from 2011 to 2018. This post focuses on STEM-related projects.

The number of STEM projects at the national contest and in finals varies significantly from year to year, and it seems very tied to the topic. Topics that focus on the impact of a person or event (such as "Turning Points" or "Revolution, Reaction, Reform") lend themselves to STEM topics. The most common fields for STEM projects across years are medicine, environment, and disease, with space, nuclear, and other biology topics also common. This might be because of accessible resources on those topics or earlier exposure of students to them. No NHD category consistently has the most STEM projects, but performance often has the least.

Below the fold are more details on what I found. There are some notes/disclaimers about this analysis and how I categorized projects at the end.

Winter 2018 Math Ed Links

Here's some of what I've been reading for the past few months.

NHD 2017-18: Conflict and Compromise

Here are some arts and STEM topics ideas for this year's NHD theme! I expect it to be a pretty low year for both arts and STEM projects; "Conflict and Compromise" isn't the easiest theme for either one. I'll be adding to this post for the next month or so.

STEM

-- The War of Currents (AC vs DC current). This has had a winner to an extent, but there are a lot of ways in which we still use each of AC and DC current today, so this does feel like it involved a compromise to me.
-- Wave-Particle Duality. I feel a little odd calling this a compromise, but the answer to "Is light a wave or a particle?" is well, yes. It took us a while to figure that out, and the history of the experiments and discussions that finally led us to the current model is really interesting.
-- Galileo. This was recommended in the theme book, maybe because Galileo compromised his values in recanting, maybe because he had earlier come to a compromise with the church (and then in the church's eyes crossed the agreed upon line). I'm hesitant to strongly recommend this topic because of its familiarity and applicability to a wide range of NHD themes.
-- Ethics of Human Subject Research. This is pretty broad, but it's a subject based on compromise. Biomedical and behavioral research is often very valuable, but we need to do it in a way that is safe and respectful of the people involved as research subjects. Key documents to consider: the Nuremberg Code, the Declaration of Helsinki, the Belmont Report, the National Research Act of 1974.
-- Munsell Color System. This paper argues that Albert Henry Munsell's system of describing color was a compromise that largely resolved a conflict around color science. It might be difficult to use this paper as a starting point; either it makes the argument you want to make, or you effectively argue against it. But this seemed interesting, so I wanted to throw it in.
-- Endangered Species Act. The ESA has existed in several forms and has been amended a number of times, generally seeking compromise between industry and protection of species.
-- Echo Park Dam and Glen Canyon Dam. Glen Canyon Dam was the compromise after there was controversy about the proposed Echo Park Dam, which was on protected land. (There are also similar other projects that you could look at; I found an Army document about development of the Snake River titled "Controversy, Conflict, and Compromise: A History of the Lower Snake River Development.")
-- Apostle Islands National Lakeshore. This park includes less area than originally planned because of Native American (especially Ojibwe) activism advocating for their land rights. There are probably other cases of preservation or conservation movements and Native American land rights coming into conflict that you could look for.
-- Cooperative Game Theory. So this is a kind of sideways take on the topic, but cooperative game theory is a mathematical field founded on ideas of conflict and compromise. Looking at its history (and in particular the early work of John von Neumann and Oskar Morgenstern) would be really cool and, I think, unique.

Arts

-- Ballet in the early Soviet Union. In the 1920s, there was a lot of discussion in the Soviet Union around ballet as an art. It had a strong history in Russia, but it was tied heavily to the nobility and especially to the tsars. It was virtuoso and didn't tell stories of the common people... but the classical, Imperial-era ballets still drew huge crowds. I think one could do a good project about that conflict and how the leadership eventually reconciled ballet with socialist ideals. Book recommendations: Swans of the Kremlin, Apollo's Angels, Bolshoi Confidential.
-- An Actors or Writers Guild strike; there have been several large ones in the US over the past century. Most labor negotiations involve a lot of conflict and compromise, and some of these have had major impacts on the affected industries. (I'd recommend against the Disney animators' strike because of the minimal compromise involved.)
-- Vietnam Veterans' Memorial. Maya Lin's design for the memorial was controversial, and more traditional memorial elements were added to the plans as a compromise.
-- Rodgers and Hammerstein. This is suggested in the theme book, and the reasoning isn't entirely clear, but here's my best guess. Several R&H shows have liberal political messages but don't fully commit to them. (South Pacific has a good deal of uncondemned Orientalism while also addressing racism and interracial marriage, for example.) Robert Gordon's The Oxford Handbook of Sondheim Studies definitely refers to this as a compromise.

Math Ed Link Dump, Jan-Feb 2017

Basic Stats Activity + Impossible Problem
This is a cool mean/median/mode exercise generally, and I liked the accidental impossible problem and how it was handled.

Francis Su's Joint Meetings Keynote
This talk has gotten a lot of attention, both at JMM and well after. I didn't go see this due to timing of another session I needed to be in, but please read this. There are some parts of it that I disagree with (largely related to the connection of mathematics with some of the virtues), but many of the messages and stories are important.

New AMS Blog: Inclusion-Exclusion
Related to the above: this blog exists now, and I'm glad it does.

Daily Routine Collections
These are links to things like Number Talks, Visual Patterns, Which One Doesn't Belong, etc. I knew about most of these individually, but this is a place where they all live together! This link is mostly here so that I can find it in the future.

Online Geoboard!
Geoboards are awesome, so I was excited to discover an online geoboard. Simon Gregg made a couple of cool Which One Doesn't Belong sets with this, but obviously there are so many different things you can do with a geoboard. (And I started thinking about non-WODB properties of the shapes he made for his WODB sets, so those are flexible, too!)

Math and Education Links

Here's some of what I've been reading over the past few months!

DeanDad on active learning.
I took an inquiry-based (pretty strictly Moore Method) course the semester that I was in Budapest, and I remember the professor telling us that any course that was very inquiry-based needed to be opt-in. He'd taught IBL Calculus at UChicago, where it was one of several options; it wouldn't have worked if it had been the only choice (even with the right class sizes). Some of that is because of what DeanDad talks about here. Active learning can be really empowering (as Francis Su talked about at the IBL conference in August), but it can also feel like abandonment, and I've seen it go both ways.

Modeling as creative science.
This is an article from earlier this year that Rhett Allain reposted this fall. After reading him for a few years, getting more experience doing mathematical modeling, and going to a conference that focused on using and teaching modeling in the classroom, I pretty much agree with Allain's focus on models. This particular post is about having students do the modeling work, which is really important; I also agree with him that there's great value in presenting information as models.

Using Student-Generated Examples.
This reminded me a lot of some of the problems that were assigned in my real analysis class, except there so often there was one type of intended example, and here that changes a lot by question (and variety is part of the point). What kinds of math classes does this fit into well? It seems natural for thinking about patterns and functions.

Ben Orlin does interesting things to the high school math curriculum.
I have an immediate adverse reaction to the Utility Belt Curriculum, and I'm not quite sure why. I love the Go Forth and Prosper Curriculum and would love teaching any of the 11th/12th grade courses, but as Orlin mentions, it's not feasible in most schools. I don't find Four Square Meals particularly appealing, partially because I don't really understand doing AP Calc AB and BC in two years, so I don't like the rationale. (Though yes please to it being normal for everyone to get decent stats ed.) I like the Verb-Powered Curriculum, though not doing some calc in the modeling class or circling back to modeling in the class that involves calc seems unfortunate. There's a ton of modeling that you can do without calculus, obviously, but so many modeling possibilities open with calculus.

Math with primary sources.
Could be good for integrating into math courses, for math history courses, or for history projects related to math topics.

Some More Math Links

Jeremy Kun's Habits of Highly Mathematical People.
He doesn't actually spend a ton of time on how the math we do in the classroom teaches the habits/skills he mentions; he's mostly defining and discussing examples of these skills in mathematical people. It's still pretty fascinating and useful.

Mark Chubb on Closing a Lesson
This post includes links to interesting things about orchestrating math discussion, and in general it talks about some things I've been thinking about (and struggling with) recently

Francis Su's Freedom Through Inquiry
I was fortunate enough to be at the IBL conference where Francis Su gave this speech, and it's so good. I love the humor of parts of it ("This set's closed, this set's open, this one's neither, this one's clopen!"), but Su also says so many important things about freedom in learning and how inquiry allows this freedom.

Dylan Kane on Lecturing
I'd never heard the bit about lecturing in MS/HS because in HS/college there would be lectures, but I agree with the reasons Kane lists to not use this excuse. My favorite part of the post, though, is the bit about not being sure how to respond when asked if he lectures, with these two quotes:
"Based on that knowledge I may choose to deliver some explicit instruction. Maybe for two minutes at a time, maybe for twenty."
"There’s no magic bullet, no one right answer. That intellectual work of figuring out what is going to work tomorrow for my students is probably my favorite part of the job."


Joshua Bowman on Expectations of an Upper-Level Math Class
This is mostly an excerpt from Bowman's analysis syllabus, setting up expectations from which specifications for grading will be taken. I really like the idea of explicitly basing an upper-level course around the ideas of definition, theorem, proof, and community. (I love that he includes community because it's so important.)

Themed AP Lang and Comp: Mathematics

The Advanced Placement English Language and Composition exam is focused on analysis and argument based on nonfiction texts, which means there's a lot of opportunity to theme the readings for a course that prepares students for the exam. I'll write about a few different themes; this post focuses on a mathematics theme.

The key components of a class preparing students for the AP Lang & Comp exam are:

• writing narrative, expository, analytical, and argumentative essays
• writing multiple drafts of essays
• some informal writing (journaling, etc.)
• writing assignments based on a variety of prose styles & genres
• nonfiction readings of a variety of types (essays, journalism, political writing, science or nature writing, biography, diaries, history, criticism, etc.)
• graphic/visual image analysis
• citing sources

With those components in mind, here is an example set of readings for a math themed class. I tried to assemble a set of readings that could fit together coherently while covering different types of writing and topics within mathematics.

Links and Thoughts on Math and Math Ed

Here are a few things I've read recently related to math and math ed!

Sam J. Shah wrote about having a book club in a math class. I like the readings and the thoughts on organizing the discussion, and it would be interesting to think more about how to scale it. I've been putting together a set of mathematics related readings, more focused on thinking about writing and analysis with math as the subject than the other way around, and that list will definitely be influenced by this set of readings.

Steven Strogatz on math, modeling, and his math course for liberal-arts students. I really enjoyed reading what he had to say about that course, both the approach and what it's important to learn in such a class. The part of this that hit me the most, though, was the part about mathematical beauty. I'm definitely prone to describing math, or at least good math, as beautiful and elegant, and while I've had success explaining to people where I see that beauty, Strogatz is right that it can also be alienating. I'd like to keep that in mind.

Francis Su (MAA president and Harvey Mudd professor) on focus on process vs grades, growth mindset, and academic dishonesty.

SIAM and COMAP (which runs the Mathematics Contest in Modeling) put out this guide to teaching math modeling in K-16. It's cool.

Mark Chubb wrote about an estimation-focused task near the end of a unit on multiplication and about what it means in terms of focus on concept vs focus on procedure. All the questions at the end of the post are really important, and I would ask another question. I don't wonder only what students think being successful at mathematics looks like but what they think mathematics is. Also, I love the task itself.

Literature as Ballet

A number of ballets are based on literary works, so a class around literature, ballet, and the translation between them could be really interesting! This is an outline for the content of such a class; note that this will be far better with students who have reasonable familiarity with ballet and preferably know basic ballet history.

The ballets in the recommended list are all available on DVD. There are some ballets that would be good fits for a class like this (ex. John Cranko's Onegin) but have not been released on film. And of course, if there are ballets based on literary works being performed by nearby companies, go see them!

Themed AP Lang and Comp: Sports

The Advanced Placement English Language and Composition exam is focused on analysis and argument based on nonfiction texts, which means there's a lot of opportunity to theme the readings for a course that prepares students for the exam. I'll write about a few different themes; this post focuses on a sports theme.

The key components of a class preparing students for the AP Lang & Comp exam are:

• writing narrative, expository, analytical, and argumentative essays
• writing multiple drafts of essays
• some informal writing (journaling, etc.)
• writing assignments based on a variety of prose styles & genres
• nonfiction readings of a variety of types (essays, journalism, political writing, science or nature writing, biography, diaries, history, criticism, etc.)
• graphic/visual image analysis
• citing sources

With those components in mind, here is an example set of readings for a sports themed class. I tried to assemble a set of readings that could fit together coherently while covering different types of writing and sports.

Themed AP Lang and Comp: Biology

The Advanced Placement English Language and Composition exam is focused on analysis and argument based on nonfiction texts, which means there's a lot of opportunity to theme the readings for a course that prepares students for the exam. I'll write about a few different themes; this post focuses on a biology theme.

The key components of a class preparing students for the AP Lang & Comp exam are:

• writing narrative, expository, analytical, and argumentative essays
• writing multiple drafts of essays
• some informal writing (journaling, etc.)
• writing assignments based on a variety of prose styles & genres
• nonfiction readings of a variety of types (essays, journalism, political writing, science or nature writing, biography, diaries, history, criticism, etc.)
• graphic/visual image analysis
• citing sources

With those components in mind, here is an example set of readings for a biology themed class. I tried to assemble a set of readings that could fit together coherently while covering different types of writing and fields within biology.

National History Day 2016: Arts and Religion Topic Ideas

The theme for 2016 NHD is Exploration, Encounter, and Exchange History.

Art topics tend to be underrepresented in NHD, so here are some arts topic suggestions for this year's theme! I also included religion topics because this year's theme is particularly good for them; so much of religion is about encounter. The theme book encourages pulling in elements of all three parts of the theme, but it's not required, and it's natural for a project to focus much more on one than the others. This post might be updated occasionally throughout the year.

Religion
--John Wesley and the Moravians. Wesley was the founder of Methodism, and his theology was heavily influenced by a group of Moravians he met on a ship to Georgia.
--Methodist Circuit Riders in the early United States.
--The establishment of the San Antonio Missions. You could do similar things throughout much of the southwest US (as well as Mexico and Central and South America), these are just the missions I'm most familiar with. They're Spanish missions that were established to spread Christianity (and as part of colonization).

Visual Art and Architecture
--Paul Durand-Ruel and Impressionism. Durand-Ruel was an art dealer and one of the first supporters of the Impressionists. See this National Gallery exhibition for more information.
--Frank Lloyd Wright. This is more on the exploration side. Wright was known for incredible innovation in his work.
--Picasso. Again on the exploration, but he also drew from a lot of different influences as he explored different styles. He was one of the earliest Cubists and Neo-Expressionists.
--Matisse or Duchamp. Along with Picasso, really helped shape 20th century art across a variety of media. Matisse helped lead Fauvism but also did great work in classical painting, collages, and sculpture.

Dance
--1956 Bolshoi performances in London. There hadn't been touring between the East and the West in decades, and ballet had gone in very different directions on the two sides of the Iron Curtain. The Bolshoi's tour to London in 1956 created exchange that led to the modern story ballet in the West and choreographic symphonism in the Soviet Union. Read Swans of the Kremlin and Apollo's Angels.
--Ballet defections from the Soviet Union. There are three famous/major ones: Mikhail Baryshnikov, Natalia Makarova, and Rudolf Nureyev.
--Diaghilev and the Ballets Russes. Ballet truly came to the US through the Ballet Russes, and their travels brought Russian technique out of Russia. Also, this is how Balanchine ended up in the West, which even without the rest would be significant. Again, read Apollo's Angels.
--Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo. This was a touring company formed by members of the Ballet Russes, and they primarily toured in the US. While the Ballet Russes was responsible for exposing Americans in large cities to ballet between 1910 and 1930, from 1940 or so on the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo brought ballet to cities throughout the US, and their dancers established companies and schools. (Look for a local example!) And yes, read Apollo's Angels. (Seriously, for any ballet ideas: read Apollo's Angels.)
--Vernon and Irene Castle. This pair helped expose large audiences in the early 1900s to a variety of popular dances and music styles, popularizing them and making them "respectable."
--Martha Graham. This definitely falls most into exploration; Graham made modern dance what it is. Read Agnes de Mille's Martha.
--Lester Horton. Horton was another leader of modern dance, as much in his role as teacher as in his role as choreographer. He developed a technique still widely studied today, drew from a variety of styles for inspiration, and he was the greatest influence on Alvin Ailey. Alternately, talk about Ailey (the person or the company).

Music
--Stravinsky. Stravinsky pushed music to new places just as Martha Graham did for dance. It was strange and revolutionary and provocative and very controversial.

National History Day 2016: Math, Physics, and Technology Topic Ideas

The theme for 2016 NHD is Exploration, Encounter, and Exchange History.

History of science topics tend to be underrepresented in NHD, so here are some math, physics, and technology topic suggestions for this year's theme! This year's theme is particularly good for scientific topics because so much of science is about exploration. The theme book encourages pulling in elements of all three parts of the theme, but it's not required, and it's natural for a project to focus much more on one than the others. This post might be updated occasionally throughout the fall!


Math and Statistics
--Paul Erdős and collaboration in mathematics. Erdős was hugely influential in combinatorics and graph theory in general but particularly in a few subareas like Ramsey theory and extremal combinatorics. More importantly, though, Erdős helped build collaborative networks in mathematics. He worked with many different people, connected people with each other, and connected people with problems that he thought they could solve. Read The Man Who Loved Only Numbers and watch N is a Number.
--Newton, Leibniz, and calculus. Newton and Leibniz independently developed calculus and then famously argued over it. This actually had consequences for the communication of mathematics between Britain and the continent for the next century, really negatively impacting British mathematics.
--G.H. Hardy and Ramanujan. Both men were incredible number theorists, and Ramanujan could see connections among numbers better than anyone else. Hardy discovered Ramanujan through letters and then invited him to come work in England. Read The Man Who Knew Infinity.
--Janos Bolyai and non-Euclidean geometry. Bolyai wasn't the first mathematician to explore what happened when we break Euclid's fifth postulate (about parallel lines), but his work was more complete than what had been done previously, and he did it independently. He wrote about this work in a letter to his father and said, "Out of nothing I have created a strange new universe." (Something from that quote would make a great project title!)
--Leonhard Euler. I could put a specific field, but Euler shaped a lot of how we talk about and write mathematics today as well as being extremely prolific in a variety of fields. There are so many possibilities here. Look at the biography Euler, Master of Us All.
--Augustin-Louis Cauchy and complex analysis. A lot of mathematicians believe complex analysis is the most beautiful subfield of mathematics, and Cauchy pretty much developed it all on his own. (Half the theorems in an intro complex analysis course are named after Cauchy.)

Physics and Technology
--The development of the theory of special relativity. Start with the Michelson-Morley experiment and move forward. This is an extremely well-tested theory, and the Michelson-Morley experiment which started hinting towards it was intended to detect aether...and failed.
--Quantum mechanics. There are a lot of possibilities here, and the whole story is really interesting, but especially in thinking about exchange the Bohr-Einstein debates would be a cool topic.
--The Einstein-Szilard letter and the Manhattan Project. Hungarian physicists and Einstein warned the US government that Germany might develop atomic bombs. The result was the Manhattan project.
--The space race. Some of the exchange is more a lack thereof, but this is definitely exploration.

National History Day 2015: Assorted Topic Ideas

The National History Day theme for 2014-2015 is Leadership and Legacy in History. I do special posts for STEM topics because I think they in particular are underrepresented, but I've come up with some other topic ideas that I thought I'd post. Hope this is useful!

Political Leaders
--Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew, the first PM of Singapore, responsible for really shaping modern Singapore
--Heydar Aliyev. Led the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic for years and then was president of the Republic of Azerbaijan after the Soviet Union dissolved. (A lot of Central Asian countries have similar leaders, so check them out!)
--Saint Steven I, King of Hungary. He wasn't the first leader of the unified Magyar tribes, but he made a lot of changes and really established the kingdom.
--Charles I of Hungary, the first of the Angevin line of kings, who reunited Hungary under royal power and under whom the Renaissance began in Hungary
--Janos Hunyadi, who led Hungary against the Ottoman Turks in the 1400s
--Count Istvan Szechenyi or Lajos Kossuth, Hungarian reformers and leaders while Hungary was ruled by the Habsburgs
--Ferenc Deak, who negotiated the Austro-Hungarian Compromise with the Emperor
--Imre Nagy, a prime minister of Communist Hungary who supported/was supported by the 1956 revolution but was executed when the revolution was crushed

Religious Leaders (of the Protestant variety)
--John and/or Charles Wesley, founders of Methodism.
--Coke and Asbury, the first Methodist bishops in the United States.
--The most common topic choice here is Martin Luther, leader of the Reformation and founder of Lutheranism. You could also look at John Calvin, another leader of the Protestant Reformation.
--John Knox, leader of the Scottish reformation
--Jerry Falwell. You could go lots of directions with this, but one is starting Liberty University

Dance
-- Martha Graham and modern dance
-- Balanchine and neo-classicism (as well as American ballet in general)
-- Rudolf Nureyev and the Paris Opera Ballet
-- Bournonville and Danish Ballet
-- Yuri Grigorovitch and the rise of choreographic symphonism in the Soviet Union
-- Ninette de Valois and Sadler's Wells (the Royal Ballet)
-- Diaghilev and the Ballets Russes

Disney
-- Walt Disney and animation (or choose an early Disney animator)
-- Walt Disney and Disneyland
-- John Hench and Disneyland (or choose an early Imagineer)
-- The Sherman brothers and Disney music

National History Day 2015: Chemistry and Biology Topics

The theme for 2015 NHD is Leadership and Legacy in History.

History of science topics tend to be underrepresented in NHD, so here are chemistry and biology topic suggestions for this year's theme! Some of these might be a bit of a stretch of the theme or might interpret it in an unusual way.

Something I find cool about this topic is that the 'legacy' bit explicitly requires discussing the impact in the present, so think about all of these with that in mind! Another thing to keep in mind is something that is specifically called out in this year's theme handbook: not everyone who "leads the way" shows leadership. The handbook actually specifically calls out scientists: "Does a scientist display leadership because he or she invents something that is historically significant? Not necessarily." The people I've listed here did great things in their field. The question to consider is whether they displayed leadership of others.

Chemistry

Kathleen Lonsdale, one of the first women elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society and a pioneer of x-ray crystallography
Elsie Widdowson and nutrition
Dorothy Hodgkin, x-ray diffraction, worked out the structures of penicillin and vitamin B12
Anne McLaren and in vitro fertilization
Louis Pasteur and pasteurization or vaccination
Svante Arrhenius, founder of physical chemistry
Otto Hahn, father of nuclear chemistry
Fritz Haber, father of chemical warfare. This could make for an interesting argument about leadership.
Dmitri Mendeleev and the periodic table

National History Day 2015: Math, Physics, and Technology Topics

The theme for 2015 NHD is Leadership and Legacy in History.

History of science topics tend to be underrepresented in NHD, so here are some math and physics topic suggestions for this year's theme! Some of these might be a bit of a stretch of the theme or might interpret it in an unusual way. This post might be updated occasionally throughout the summer and fall.

Something I find cool about this topic is that the 'legacy' bit explicitly requires discussing the impact in the present, so think about all of these with that in mind! Another thing to keep in mind is something that is specifically called out in this year's theme handbook: not everyone who "leads the way" shows leadership. The handbook actually specifically calls out scientists: "Does a scientist display leadership because he or she invents something that is historically significant? Not necessarily." The people I've listed here did great things in their field. The question to consider is whether they displayed leadership, showing an ability to lead and inspire others.

Math and Statistics
--Paul Erdos and collaboration in mathematics
--David Hilbert's 23 problems
--Mary W. Gray and the Association for Women in Mathematics (AWM)
--Charlotte Scott and women in mathematics
--Kuratowski and Polish mathematics
Choose a mathematician who helped create/made a lot of progress in an area of mathematics. Here are some suggestions:

Language Learning at Home

I'm very in favor of kids learning foreign languages, and I've recently been thinking about teaching kids languages at home and how it can/should be done. First, I'm assuming that the parents have been speaking only English to the child; this isn't a kid who has been raised bilingual. Second, I'm not really going to say much about what I think about any of the "curricula" I mention; I do like some more than others. Third, so much of all of this depends on the child, so rather than constantly repeat that, I'm going to make that a disclaimer: timing, pace, and manner of learning are all so, so student dependent. (Also, questions and comments would be really appreciated. I love thinking about this, and there's still a lot about which I'm unsure.)

Q: When should a child start learning a foreign language?

I started learning French when I was five, and I think it was about the right age. I've gone back and forth about how much a student's level in English should impact when to start. I could already read, for example. Is it better to wait until the child can read? I'm not sure that's necessary because the early stages of learning a new language at this point are not going to focus too much on writing.

Q: Okay, so what language?

For this first foreign language, I would choose a language with a lot of material available - movies with tracks in this language, music, books, and whatever the main learning tool is going to be (whether that be software, DVDs, CDs + books, or something else).

What languages does this open up? Spanish, French, and German, certainly, but there's more and more material for kids in other languages. For example, Little Pim has Mandarin, Russian, Italian, Japanese, Arabic, Hebrew, and Portuguese; Learnables has Mandarin, Hebrew, Japanese, and Russian; and Muzzy has Mandarin, Italian, Russian, and Portuguese. (Dino Lingo has dozens of languages, but I don't know much about it.) Other places to look at what's available, particularly as far as books go, in various languages are Language Lizard and the International Children's Digital Library. 

National History Day: Paper and Documentary Notes

When I watched documentaries at NHD Nationals in 2012, I took some general notes that friends have told me are useful, so I thought I'd share them. I also have some very brief notes on my experience competing in the paper category. Hope this is useful!

Documentary

Most people had their documentaries on DVDs. I would recommend having multiple DVDs and a copy on a flash drive.

Starting screen while waiting on judges to read process papers – preferably with no sound.

Students serve as the narrators of the documentary.

Sources are listed in the credits, but sources in the credits may be very general.

Most of the entries have background music. Awkward cuts of the background music can be distracting. For example, most senior entries have an intro, then go to the title screen, then continue. If there is music in the intro, it should carry through the title screen into the beginning of the main section of the documentary.

Almost all finals documentaries at Nationals have interviews, even if they’re with professors.

Documentaries use photos, video clips, sound clips, music, interviews, drawings and other art, charts, graphs, maps, and images of documents (especially newspaper articles). Common techniques are zooming in and out, panning on images.

The students should give the process papers to the judges before going to set up the video. They will have to wait for the judges to finish reading.

The student(s) should stand throughout the showing of the documentary, and competitors are responsible for adjusting the volume if it is necessary.

Technical problems are pretty common and are not held against the entry. It’s important that the competitor remain composed through technical issues.

Students must introduce themselves and their documentaries before starting, so they should know how to project their voices to be heard throughout a room.

It’s a good idea to check Fair Use policies before using video clips/music/photos.

National History Day: Performance Notes

At NHD 2012, I watched a lot of performances, both individual and group, and I took some notes that friends have told me are pretty helpful. These notes are split into individual performance and group performance, but a lot of the individual notes apply to group as well! Some of these notes will be more helpful early in the process of coming up with a performance, and some will be more helpful later on.

Individual Performance

Most competitors start with an introduction: “I’m (name), and my performance is (title).”

Most competitors have multiple characters, usually but not always including a narrator.

Character changes should be very clear. It’s best to change voice/accent. Many competitors change costume. Turning around or bowing the head also often indicate a character change.

Small costume changes may be sufficient – adding a pair of glasses or a shawl. Some performances had much more extensive costume changes. The 2^nd place entry brought a black curtain hung on a PVC pipe frame behind which he changed coats, vests, hats, and wigs.

Costume changes have the possibility to be awkward silences. Many competitors fill this by playing music. The 2^nd place entry either continued speaking in the character he had been or was an unidentified gossiper. He was *very* quick with his changes, or this could have become confusing.

Costumes do not tend to be simple. They should be appropriate to the character(s), and some of them are so elaborate.

Props/backgrounds varied greatly. The winning senior entry had elaborate sets – three backgrounds hung on PVC pipe frames, a small loom, a spinning wheel, a desk, a mannequin, a bell, and a telephone. However, one of the other entries that made finals had only two pieces of paper meant to be letters. Props should be significant, not just there to look good.

National History Day: Exhibit Notes

At the NHD National Competition a couple of years ago, I took a lot of notes about what I saw from exhibits. At any stage in the process, whether you're just starting or trying to fix up your exhibit for Nationals, these are some things to consider.

Exhibits
 

The best exhibits are more like museum exhibits than science fair boards. The colors, decoration, and even design of the board tend to correspond to the topic.

Lots of entries use video screens integrated into the board.

Most entries use a trifold shape, and many of them make use of the traditionally empty are on the table between the sides of the trifold. Here there may be models, maps, relevant timelines, etc. It’s important to not just try to fill this space, though – everything present should add something to the exhibit.

Because of the limit on student produced words, most boards have lots of quotes, images, and documents.

No one will read a long block of text – split the text up. However, too many short text blocks can make the board look busy, so there has to be a balance. The board should provide lots of information in an organized fashion.

Choose two or three thematic colors that go together, and make sure there is enough contrast that the board is easy to read. Choose a readable font in a large enough size, and don’t use very many different fonts.

Some exhibits use texture backing material on the board to theme it – thin cotton for Triangle Shirtwaist, woven plant mats for Guam, etc.

Most exhibits were trifolds – cardboard, foamcore, wood, even corrugated metal – and tall. However, others had three or four sides and spun. One of the entries that made finals was in the form of a very large book because the topic was Dr. Seuss.

Some of the exhibits were two pieces vertically joined with latches, Velcro, or braces.

Don’t just glue everything flat to the board. Using foamcore to bumpt things out creates a more polished appearance.

Some exhibits are interactive: lift the flap areas, layered stacks of pages, trains that ran, video selections.