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Reminder Assistant Editor WILBRAHAM Remember history class in high school? The teacher would drone on and on about events that happened centuries ago. One had to memorize seemingly endless amounts of dates and names and places and court decisions. It was all dull, dry stuff. The students of James Card's history class from Minnechaug Regional High School, however, brought life to a number of significant historical events with their History Day projects last Wednesday. National History Day is an educational program devoted to improving the teaching and learning of history in American schools. It is touted as a meaningful way for students to study historical issues, ideas, people and events by engaging in historical research. While Minnechaug has hosted similar events in the past, this was the first time the school's students participated in National History Day, according to Patty Hogan, chair of the history department. "This was more structured," Hogan explained. "It was more hardcore history-based. I was really happy with the turnout of students." The theme of the 2008 National History Day was "Conflict and Compromise in History." Student groups created projects covering everything from the Salem Witch Trials to international terrorism. Eleven of the 12 groups involved put together documentaries no longer than 10 minutes in length, while the last group created a web page. Exhibits, performances and research papers would also have been accepted. Liz Medeiros, Patricia Perkins and Lauren Yelinek presented the first project, a documentary concerning the blood diamond trade in Africa. Using Kanye West's "Diamonds from Sierra Leone" as a soundtrack, the group's film covered the history of the violent diamond mining and trade taking place in central Africa, using a number of graphic images to illustrate what's been done to those forced to mine the gems. The compromise to fix this ragged industry comes in the form of the Kimberly Process, a system of regulations governments, traders and miners all agree to follow. Christina Barbieri, AnnMarie Davenport and Kaelea Spedding showed "The Ultimate Fraud: The Election of 1960." The Republicans were quoted as saying the Democrats had won the election: "They stole it fair and square." Biographies of both John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon were covered, as was the infamous television debate between the two candidates. A vintage Kennedy campaign commercial was shown as well. The compromise? Nixon continued to build his political career while JFK was in office. "Star Wars: The Strategic Defense Initiative" was created by Evan Weinberg and discussed Ronald Reagan's plan to research futuristic defense technologies. This created a lot of tension between the United States and the Soviet Union, but ultimately, Reagan and Gorbachev both agreed to sign the INF Treaty, leading to the deactivation of hundreds of missiles. "The Khmer Rouge and the Cambodian Killing Fields" was presented by Alora Lynch and Matt Fontaine and covered what led up to the genocide of nearly two million Cambodians by Pol Pot in the 1970s. There were many graphic films and photographs included in the documentary. Both the United States and the United Nations stepped in to end the bloodshed. Audra Quinton, Christopher Trajkovski and Melanie Campfield created a documentary about the Salem Witch Trials of 1692 which included interviews with the director of the Salem Witch Museum and professors from Salem State College and Springfield Technical Community College (STCC). This dark time in American history was dubbed "a witch holocaust." Dave Peltier presented a film on the Tiananmen Square Massacre of 1989 and used a lot of footage of the peaceful protesters. There is still no real compromise for what the young Chinese wanted -- free speech is not allowed and there is no democracy in the communist country, almost two decades later. "A Pequot Story," about the Pequot War, was presented by Ashley Stolarik, Nick Manolakis, William Fallon and Nick Baird. Rather than use voiceovers, the group members appeared onscreen to present their research. (Baird wore a different mustache every time he appeared.) The end of the war came with the signing of the Treaty of Hartford in 1638 but the way the Pequot had been treated by Puritan settlers foreshadowed the future for all Native Americans. Brian Stack, Kevin Fogarty and Vincent Gabrielle created "The War Over Words: The Anglo Irish Treaty and the Irish Civil War." A non-stop stream of information about the English rule of Ireland and its eventual liberation overlaid pictures and old film footage. International terrorism was covered by Andrew Fenton, Greg Baker, April Chagnon and Kyle Farnsworth. Their documentary described the various extremist groups -- Hezbollah, Hamas, Al Qaeda and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) -- and explained how two of the groups (Hamas and the PLO) are moving forward from militancy to politics to achieve their goals. Lauren Ross, Hope Lounsbury and Amelia Vottero focused on utopian societies and communes in America. There are currently 1,366 communes in the U.S., which hope to attain peaceful, independent societies, but the group's documentary also focused on what can go wrong -- as evidenced by the Jonestown, Guyana incident in the late 1970s. The Indian Removal Act and the Trail of Tears documentary was presented by Anna Carlson, Katy Scott, Brianna Perry and Kimya Hedayat-Zadeh. It illustrated "a compromise gone wrong." The group spoke with a Western New England College professor while gathering information. The last project was a Web site created by Timothy Figueredo, Adam Pelloso, Nicholas Piela and Armand Santaniello. The group used images, film and audio to discuss the history and current state of nuclear weapons. The judges -- Dan Hanscome, Chris Wrona, Connie Shea and John Derosia, conferred after the showings to decide the winners. The projects were graded on historical quality, relation to theme and clarity of the presentation. "All the projects were very good and varied," Wrona, a former Minnechaug history teacher, said. "That's typical of Minnechaug students." The winners of the contest were announced the morning after the presentations took place. The groups who produced documentaries on the Salem Witch Trials, "Star Wars," the Indian Removal Act and utopian societies will next present their projects at the regional competition at STCC on March 8. Winners from there will move on to the state level, competing at Clark University on April 5. If a group wins there, they will move onto nationals at the University of Maryland from June 15 -- 19. Card said seeing all the projects that the students worked on for a full semester was "exciting." "I'm glad we have such a competitive and supportive group," he added. | ||||||
