Licking Heights Middle School eighth graders who participated in the Region 6 Ohio History Day contest have advanced to state competition. Selamawit Mulugeta and Arianna Williams’ documentary The Brady Bill: Reload Your Rights and Aaralyn Scarf, Clara Lynn Shiflett, Evelyn Rossi, Isha Bista and Layla Price’s performance piece entitled Women of the Revolution Change HIStory were in the top three for their respective categories.
The competition took place March 8 at the Ohio Statehouse where schools from Central Ohio competed against one another to move on to state competition. State competition will take place April 26 at Capital University. Students will then compete to earn a spot at the National History Day competition to be held June 8-12 at the University of Maryland, College Park.
Ohio History Day (OHD) is a free, interdisciplinary learning program for students in middle and high school. It is affiliated with National History Day (NHD) and encourages students to conduct research, analyze information and present their findings through five different formats. Students can choose to present their findings through an exhibit, paper, documentary, performance or website.
Students began their projects in November focusing on this year’s theme, Rights and Responsibilities. Mulugeta’s documentary The Brady Bill: Reload Your Rights showed viewers that the right to gun ownership comes with tremendous responsibility. “By working on this project, I was able to gain knowledge about the most pressing issues of today,” Mulugeta said. “In the end, I came home with not just research, writing and presenting skills, but also with an experience that was unlike any other.”
The performance piece Women of the Revolution Change HIStory highlighted stories of the Daughters of Liberty and how women played a major role in the American Revolution but were never recognized until now. “We had to step into someone’s shoes and apply ourselves to their lives in order to understand their perspective,” Price said. “I learned that everything is more enjoyable when you have group members that inspire each other.”
Members of both the documentary and performance groups said they are excited to go on to state competition. “We can’t wait to meet new people who have the same interest in history as us, and we look forward to seeing their projects,” Bista said.