Action heroes bring home history day honors

Connor Harbit, Mackenzie Gallagher, Gage Bristow and Jennie Huynh display the ribbons won at a March 4 History Day competition in Joplin.

Students from the Nevada High School Action classes successfully competed at the Regional History Day Competition at Missouri Southern State University in Joplin, March 4, and qualified for the state competition on April 8.

This year's competition theme was "Debate and Diplomacy: Successes, Failures, and Consequences." Gage Bristow placed third in the senior paper division with his project, "Successes and Failures In the Ongoing Debate over Nuclear Power." MacKenzie Gallagher also placed third in the senior individual documentary division with her project, "Women's Suffrage: A Debate over Equality." Connor Harbit placed second in the senior individual documentary with his project, "The Consequences of Keeping Your Mouth Shut: The Debate over Buck Weaver's Failed Career." Jennie Huynh placed first in the senior individual W site category with her project, "Tinker vs. DesMoines: A Success for Student Rights." Their instructor is Tina Sudkamp.

The National History Day program is a yearlong educational activity for grades 6 -- 12 that encourages young people to explore history and teaches them to understand historical issues, ideas, people and events. For the competition, students conduct in-depth research on topics related to the theme. Advancing through local, regional, state and national competitions, students present their findings in a format ranging from traditional research papers to museum-type exhibits, live dramatic performances and multi-media documentaries.