National History Day: Northshore and Leota Middle School Students Place Top 10 in the Nation

Congratulations to Northshore Middle School students Calvin Chen, Zoltan Romocsa, and Darren Tse for finishing 5th in the national contest of the junior group website category and Leota Middle School student Anika Bhandari for finishing 9th in the national contest in the junior individual documentary category at National History Day (NHD). In addition to these 4 students who placed in the top 10 in their respective categories, another 12 students from middle and high schools in Northshore also represented their school communities and state during the NHD National contest at the University of Maryland June 8-12.

These students began their journey to the national contest during fall 2024 when they selected their topics and began building their projects, before competing at the regional and state contests in order to qualify to attend nationals. Scroll to the bottom of the page for more background on the National History Day contest.

Students Represent at Nationals

National History Day Background Information

This year’s National History Day theme was "Rights & Responsibilities in History" and students were encouraged to consider questions of time and place, cause and effect, change over time, and impact and significance as they researched and created their projects.

Northshore students independently select a historical topic related to the annual theme, and then conduct primary and secondary research. They accessed libraries, archives, and museums, conducted oral history interviews, and visited historic sites to gather information. After they analyzed and interpreted their sources and drew conclusions about the significance of the topic, they presented their work in one of five ways: as a paper, an exhibit, a performance, a documentary, or a website. There are two divisions: Junior (6-8 grade) and Senior (9-12 grade). Students entered either as an individual or in a group.