Cache Valley Students Take Awards at National History Fair

Two students from Cache Valley’s Thomas Edison Charter School South earned a top award for the state of Utah at the Kenneth E. Behring National History Day Contest, held on the campus of the University of Maryland in College Park, Md., June 13-17.

 

Natalie Howe and Sadie Topham, students in JoLyne Merchant’s 7th grade class at the school, received the “Outstanding State Entry” award at the national competition. The pair placed fifth overall in the Junior Group Exhibit category with their project “Barcode: A Bridge in Technology.” Another student from the school, Wyatt Merchant, a sixth-grader, placed 11th overall in the Junior Individual Exhibit category with his project “The Mythology of Men in Tights: The Innovation and Impact of the Comic Book.”

 

The students participated in the national competition after working their way through the Utah History Fair, first at the school level, then at a regional competition and finally after a successful showing at the Utah State History Fair. The theme for this year’s Utah History Fair projects was “Innovation in History: Impact and Change.”

 

The Utah History Fair is an outreach program based at Utah State University that reaches across the state of Utah and is directed by Nicholas Demas. The program is an affiliate of National History Day. During the school year, the Utah History Fair provides extra-curricular avenues for Utah’s fourth through 12th-grade students to showcase their research-based history projects. In the 2009-10 academic year, 5,845 students were actively involved with the Utah History Fair, and 2,078 students competed at regional competitions. From the regional competitions, 360 students were selected from any one of ten regions to attend state. A total of 53 students represented Utah at the Kenneth E. Behring National History Day Contest.

 

“I am very proud of the group of students representing Utah at the Kenneth E. Behring National History Day Contest, and especially proud of the students from Cache Valley who placed so well overall,” Demas said. “These students, and their teachers, began projects despite little indication that the program would continue after the budget cuts of last year. Vice President Ross Peterson needs to be recognized for his incommensurable dedication to the program. The overall quality of projects improved in 2009-2010.”

 

Demas and the Utah History Fair were recognized by the Utah Humanities Council recently, receiving a 2010 Human Ties Award. The award recognizes individuals and organization who work behind the scenes of highly successful public humanities projects and programs that have received UHC support in the past.

 

The Utah History Fair celebrates its 30th anniversary in October 2010.

 

Contact: Nicholas Demas, nicholas.demas@usu.edu