On February 9th, all grade eight students at Catskill Middle School participated in the annual History Day Fair. This project served as their mid-term grade in social studies class. History Day is an educational program sponsored in New York State by the New York State Historical Association. It encouraged students to explore local, state, national, and world history.
After selecting a historical topic that related to an annual theme, students conducted extensive research by using libraries, archives, museums, and oral history interviews. They analyzed and interpreted their findings, drew conclusions about their topics’ significance in history, and created final projects that display their research. This year’s theme was Innovations in History.
These projects were on display in the school library. Awards were given by their peers to a select few. The most informative project went to Nate Riordon for his project on The Computer. The most creative project went to Alivia Westbrooke and Hannah Konsul for their project on The Invention of Contact Lenses. The most eye-catching project went to Mary Johnson for her project on The Guillotine.
Many parents, classmates, administrator’s, faculty and staff visited throughout the day to see the students’ hard work. The students took great pride in their projects and it showed in their final presentations.
Pictured from Left to Right: Nate Riordon, Hannah Konsul, Alivia Westbrooke and Mary Johnson.