Frequently Asked Questions

A collage of students presenting academic projects. One student reads from papers, two students speak at a podium, one raises arms as if making a point, two pose by a project display, and one stands near a screen.

Implementation

  • Many History Day teachers find that the skills necessary to complete a History Day project may already be incorporated into their curriculum.

    In generals, students will broaden the content they investigate as they learn about the historical context and legacy of their topics. Some teachers will choose to limit student topic selection to the content focus of the class in which History Day is being taught. Students can then become the expert and share their work with peers as relevant in the course.

  • This varies significantly based on student age, classroom structure, and student access to resources. Some students complete the project entirely in or out of class. Most commonly, students are learning/ completing the basics in school, with out-of-class assignments to complete or extend their work.

  • Students of a variety of ability levels have found success through History Day. The framework of the program is flexible enough to allow for differentiation to meet the needs of your learners.

    It’s important to remember that “success” is different for each student and not to define it as winning at competitions. For some students, getting a library card, writing a paragraph, or investigating a non-web resource might be a major “win” for their learning.

  • ●Within a school building or district, History Day teachers often find opportunities to collaborate between Social Studies and English/Language Arts. The library media staff are also an important resource for students and teachers. Depending on the category in which students are working, technology or drama teachers may also find a way to play a part.

    ●A field trip to your community or nearby college/university library can also be a great way to help students access resources and learn about research.

    ●The National History Day in Nevada program also provides additional resources, including classroom presentations. Contact us to schedule a presentation. ​

Program Requirements

  • The Theme changes each year and more information can always be found on our Theme Page.

    Students may choose topics from any area of history, but must connect it to the theme. More information is on our website.

  • NHD does not restrict topics, but teachers have the discretion to limit topics to a certain geography, time period, etc. We generally advise students to look for topics where the bulk of the events took place at least 20 years in the past. With more recent topics, students may struggle to find research and have difficulty determining the short and long term impacts of the topic.

  • The National History Day Contest Rulebook for a full outline of all general and category-specific rules.

  • Yes! National History Day includes exhibits, documentaries, papers, performances, and websites. Some teachers will limit the type of project their students can create to a subset of those options.

  • Students can work alone or in a group of 2-5 students. You have the discretion to limit group sizes. We often see groups or 2-3 students, rather than 5. Students must work alone in the Research Paper category

Competition

  • No! National History Day works as a great framework for a classroom-only project as well.

    That being said, we love authentic opportunities for students to share their learning with historians and believe the contest interview is one of those opportunities.

  • There may be costs for construction of entries, such as supplies to build an exhibit board, but we encourage students to focus on the historical quality of their project, not glitz.

    Currently the Nevada Center for Civic Engagement does not charge an entry fee for students at the state level. National Entries do have costs associated with them and we try to cover as much of that as we can. Traveling to Nationals (in years with in person contests) have additional costs.

  • In 2023, we began hosting in-person showcase opportunities for Southern Nevada and Northern Nevada students. These interactions with judges are added to the projects' overall judge rubrics.

    The state contest is held virtually, and attendance at the showcase is encouraged but not required.

  • Judging is based on the project itself and the annotated bibliography. Judges look for:

    ●60% Historical Quality

    ●20% Relation to Theme

    ●20% Clarity of Presentation

    Students are interviewed at contests, but that is not part of the final ranking. Visit our website for more information on contest criteria.

  • Projects are divided by category, group size, and division. Students in the Junior Division compete separately from the Senior Division. Individual entries and group entries compete separately. Each type of project (exhibit, documentary, website, performance, paper) also competes separately.

  • In early January, participating schools will complete a participation survey, letting us know many total students you have creating projects at your school and in which categories. We will do our best to maximize the size of the event and let as many entries as possible register.

    In general, your school will be able to send around 20 projects total. We suggest mixing them up, choosing about 2-3 entries per category/division (3 junior individual performance, 3 junior group website, etc.). Your actual entry limit may be higher, based on the total number of students you have participating at your school and the space we have available at the contest.