Museum Box Homepage. Discovering American Women's History Online. Internet Archive: Digital Library of Free Books, Movies, Music & Wayback Machine. Home - American History Timeline- Classroom Presentation. Library and Archival Exhibitions on the Web. IdeaLabs: Artifact & Analysis. Educators - Heritage Resources. Bureau Homepage. National History Day | Annual Theme. Why Teach with a Theme? Every year National History Day frames students' research within a historical theme. The theme is chosen for the broad application to world, national or state history and its relevance to ancient history or to the more recent past. This year's theme is Rights and Responsibilities in History. The intentional selection of the theme for National History Day is to provide an opportunity for students to push past the antiquated view of history as mere facts and dates and drill down into historical content to develop perspective and understanding.
The NHD theme provides a focused way to increase student's historical understanding by developing a lens to read history, an organizational structure that helps students place information in the correct context and finally, the ability to see connections over time. Download the following theme supplements: 2014 Theme Sheet Sample Topics NHD Theme Book. National History Day Contest. What is the National History Day Contest, you ask? Each year more than half a million students just like you participate. You will choose a historical topic related to the annual theme, and then conduct primary and secondary research.
You will look through libraries, archives and museums, conduct oral history interviews, and visit historic sites. After you have analyzed and interpreted your sources, and have drawn a conclusion about the significance of your topic, you will then be able to present your work in one of five ways: as a paper, an exhibit, a performance, a documentary, or a web site. In the spring, you may enter your work into local NHD contests where it will be judged by professional educators and historians. Congratulations on embarking on your National History Day journey! The 2014 Kenneth E.