BEMIDJI — Even though numbers were down from previous years, passionate students from across northwest Minnesota still came out for the region's annual History Day Competition on Thursday evening.
Held in Bemidji State's Beaux Arts Ballroom and various classrooms in Hagg-Sauer Hall, students were able to showcase their knowledge and expertise on topics of history that they chose themselves, including a variety of projects ranging from exhibits to short documentary films.
“They get to be experts on whatever their topic is,” said Bailey Hess, who helped organize the event through the Minnesota Historical Society. “They do avid research, find primary sources and secondary sources, and then they put it together and the judges give them feedback on their project.”
First started in 1980, the History Day competition occurs across the country, with local, regional and state competitions all leading to nationals in Washington, D.C.
In Minnesota alone, over 17,000 students competed in this year’s competition. As impressive as that number is, however, it is significantly down from what it was prior to 2020.
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“Pre-pandemic it was like 25,000 students,” Hess said.
For Thursday’s northwest regional competition, the decline in numbers was obvious, with just 34 students presenting projects at BSU.
“It isn’t a lot. We usually have 200 and some,” Hess shared, connecting the lower attendance to the fact that the competition has been virtual for the past three years. “We’re trying to get the numbers up again.”
Hess explained that the primary audience the competition is advertised to is teachers. The historical society has a curriculum that it provides that also encourages students to bring their research projects to the competition.
One of the event’s judges, Gloria Collyard, shared that when she was a teacher in Red Lake, History Day and the projects that her students created were some of the highlights of each year.
“As a teacher, I learned more about history doing this project with the kids than I did in any classes I ever took,” Collyard said. “It’s just amazing what you’ll learn.”
The self-directed nature of the projects was one of the best parts for Collyard’s students since they had the opportunity to choose their own topics and how they wanted to present them.
“The best thing is the kids and what they learn in this process,” Collyard shared. “They self-direct their education, and they also learn research skills that they wouldn’t get in a regular classroom. The teachers are there just to guide them, but they’re self-driven students who do it on their own.”
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Even if a teacher isn’t doing History Day with their class, if a student is interested in participating they still can with the help of a parent or an adult from their school acting as an advisor.
This is the route many of the kids at Thursday’s event took, including a brother and sister duo from Grand Rapids High School.
After learning about the competition, Paige and Adam Jacobson decided to combine two of their passions — health care and theater — into a history project Rather than an exhibit or a documentary, they chose a performance that took judges through the history of the Mayo Clinic.
"There's so much more that we didn't know about before researching," Adam said. "It really combines two things we're really passionate about. There's so much cool history behind this."
Solomon Benson, a sixth grader at TrekNorth, decided to participate in History Day after encouragement from his father and watching his brother do it last year. Even though it wasn’t something his class was involved in, with the help of his parents he was able to create a project for the competition.
His older brother Abraham, a ninth grader, participated for his second year, this time by creating a documentary on the first artificial satellite in space. He reflected on how the competition has helped him improve his research and writing.
“I really like space, and Sputnik was the first artificial satellite in space,” Abraham said. “I did one last year on the Cuban Missile Crisis. I’ve gotten a lot better at doing research and writing scripts.”
The passion of the students for their topics was evident, and even with lower participation, the event was a positive experience for teachers, students and judges alike.
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“It’s just phenomenal,” Collyard said. “I love it.”
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