Wanyuan | USH students present in NHD competition!

National History Day® (NHD) is a non-profit education organization based in the US and offers year-long academic programs that engage over half a million middle- and high-school students around the world annually in conducting original research on historical topics of interest.

The largest NHD program is the National History Day Contest that encourages more than half a million students around the world to conduct historical research on a topic of their choice. National History Day is a contest based on a year-long academic program focused on historical research, interoperation and creative expression for six to twelfth-grade students. By participating in the NHD, students become writers, filmmakers, web designers, playwrights and artists as they create unique contemporary expressions of history.

The contest not only emphasizes the importance of historical analysis, but also encourages an understanding and appreciation of history while developing college-level research skills and the awareness needed for 21st Century citizens. National History Day not only transports classrooms back in time throughout the school year, but also beneficially transforms students’ critical thinking skills and mindsets.

The National History Day (NHD) Club at SUIS Wanyuan’s US High School is one of the most academically challenging clubs in our school. Although NHD is a well-known annual competition in the United States and around the world, this year represented the first time for some of our students to participate. The topic for this year’s contest was “Triumph and Tragedy”. Given that this year is a very competitive year for NHD, our students achieved outstanding results, including a special reward.

NHD（国家历史日）社团是学校活动中最具学术挑战性的社团之一。虽然NHD社团在学校创建不久，但是它在美国却是一个十分知名并且具有影响力的比赛。每年有将近50多万中学和高中生以及3万多名教师参加。今年的话题是历史上的胜利和悲剧。和往年一样，今年的NHD竞赛也尤为的激烈，但我们的参赛同学依然取得了优异的成绩，其中包括一个特殊荣誉奖。

NHD的面向人群为六年级至十二年级学生，是一项为期一年的，以历史研究、互动和创意表达为目的的学术活动。在NHD中，学生们可以通过独特的转述历史的方式，成为作家、电影制作人、网页设计师、剧作家和艺术家。

这项比赛在提升学生们的研究技能和培养客观思维的同时，不仅强调对历史客观分析的重要性，还强调了对历史的理解和欣赏。在这个学年里，NHD不仅带领课堂的学生们走出课堂回到过去，更是在学习能力方面发掘了学生们的思想深度。

Throughout this competition, the first thing I learned was how to conduct intensive academic research. The topic we undertook was Israeli-Palestinian conflicts, and our approach can be broken down into three parts. At first, our group used the HISTORY website to gain a general overview of the topic, which provided us a research outline. In the second stage, our group conducted intensive research on each sub-topic in our outline by examining a variety of academic papers, and the major source we reviewed was JStore. In the final stage, we looked at some primary sources such as documentaries, letters, and pictures. Since we had planned to create a display board, this stage was the most crucial one as it allowed our group to provide our audience with vivid pictures of the event.

Besides the academic part, what we learned more during the competition was teamwork and collaboration. David, for example, was strong in conducting a deep analysis of historical events, while I was good at doing historical research. Therefore, I was responsible for collecting all the information and David focused on the analysis part. Overall, it was a very meaningful experience.

在整个比赛中，我最大的收获就是如何进行学术研究。这次我们做的主题是巴以冲突。我们的研究方法可以细分为三个部分。起初，我们小组使用HISTORY网站来对这个话题有一个初步的了解，这同时为我们提供了一个研究大纲。在第二阶段，我们小组通过读各种学术论文来对大纲中的话题进行深入的研究。我们读的学术论文的主要来源是Jstore。最后，我们查看了一些历史文献，如纪录片，书信和图片。由于我们组做的是展览板，我们搜到的历史文献使我们的展览更加生机勃勃。

除了学术部分，我们学到的更多是如何团队合作。例如，David擅长对历史事件进行深入分析，而我则擅长查资料。因此，我负责收集所有信息，然后让David来负责分析部分。总的来说，这是一次有意义的经历。

For Michelle and I, this was the last time for us to attend the NHD. The process was pretty tough since we needed to put much effort into searching for historical resources and different perspectives. However, we benefitted a lot from it.

During our preparations, we communicated with each other a lot to figure out the best-fit topic and the layout for the exhibition board; we learned more about one specific topic that we became interested in and discovered the versatility of its impact. NHD offered us the ability to break conventions and to think ‘out of the box’. After we started our research on PUYI, the last emperor of China, we found out that he was not as incompetent or cowardly as he was depicted in our textbooks. Because of NHD, we started to think critically and more thoroughly about a topic. We no longer memorized history but tried to view it with a critical lens. I have to admit that it was a challenging contest, especially when we had to leave our campus and compete with other international students. Yet, the contest did help us to improve our research skills and become more prepared for our future college life.

对于我和Michelle来说，这是最后一次参加NHD比赛了。整个参赛过程还是蛮艰辛的，因为我们需要搜索来自不同角度的历史信息和资料。虽然很辛苦，但是最后我们也真的收获了许多。

在准备期间，为了找到最符合今年主题的话题，以及最佳的板报设计，我们交流了许多。此外我们也对于之前十分感兴趣的，但是在课堂中浅浅略过的话题做出了深入的研究。NHD给了我们打破常规观念和定式思维的能力。当我们开始对末代皇帝溥仪展开研究的时候，我们发现，作为中国的最后一任皇帝，溥仪并没有像某些书上谱写的那么无能和懦弱。

因为NHD，我们开始客观角度分析问题，并且更加全面的审视问题。NHD比赛的确具备挑战性，尤其是当学生们要走出校园，和来自别的国际学校的外国学生展开竞争的时候，但是不承认这个比赛加强了我们学习的能力，也给我们未来的国外大学生活打下了基础。

When our team first got the message to participate in National History Day, we wanted to research on something special rather than political histories. To this end, we came up with two questions: What is a topic that is worth debating for both the ‘pro’ side and ‘con’ side, while doesn’t limit to conventional history events like wars and treaties? Finally, we chose to talk about euthanasia. Instead of discussing about the perceived benefits and harm of euthanasia, we developed our thesis based on an objective evaluation of the emergence of euthanasia. We believe the choice of euthanasia itself and its initiation are triumphs as they offer people free choice, but the ethical impact might result in a permanent tragedy for family and individuals. We made a documentary to present our work because we have strong interests in media-related projects, and we gathered group members who were adept at video editing techniques. Also, it was more engaging to conduct a documentary where we could display information with various forms of media including music, videos and photographs.

National History Day was a meaningful opportunity for our group members. It allowed us to see some of the best projects done by top students from other schools, and we discovered areas we can improve upon after listening to the judges’ helpful comments and watching other groups’ nice works. More importantly, this competition showed us effective methods for researching and analyzing historical events with multilayered evidence and deep thoughts.

当我们的团队第一次得知我们将要参加NHD时，我们想研究一些特殊的东西，而不是平日里经常接触的政治历史。为此，我们提出了两个问题:什么话题值得正反两方辩论，同时又不被限于战争和条约等传统历史事件?最后，我们选择谈论安乐死。我们没有简单地讨论安乐死的好处和坏处，而是基于对安乐死的出现给出客观评价。我们相信安乐死的选择本身和它的发起是成功的，因为它给人们提供了选择的自由，但是道德上的影响可能会给整个家庭和个人带来永久的悲剧。我们制作了纪录片来展示我们的研究成果，因为我们对媒体相关的项目有着浓厚的兴趣，并且我们有擅长视频编辑技术的组员。此外，做纪录片更有吸引力，因为我们可以用各种形式来展示信息，包括音乐、视频和照片。

对于我们的组员来说，NHD是一个难得的机会。它让我们看到其他学校的尖子生做的一些最好的项目。在听取评委的有益意见并观看其他小组的优秀作品后，我们发现了一些可以改进的地方。更重要的是，这次比赛向我们展示了用多层次证据和深刻思想来研究和分析历史事件的方法。

At this year’s NHD content, our team members decided to choose the Three Kingdoms topic – this 100-year splendid historical period, although filled with bloodshed, strongly attracted us. By looking through this period of history, we could search for the profound mystery left from 2000 years ago, and understand about the spirit of both courage and wisdom. To make our display board, we gathered first-hand resources mainly from pictures about the relics in the museum, some poetry written by Three Kingdom leaders, and second-hand resources about historical records from Chinese websites.

Although our team didn’t reach the standard we set, we accepted the results with pleasure. Having the chance to learn about the standards set by others, I can guarantee that our SUIS classmates will prepare well next time. This experience will elevate us in to a higher level, and we will strike for rewards next year. By the way, next year’s NHD topic is “Breaking the barriers” – we will certainly break the barriers of our own capacity!

在今年的NHD中，我们的选择了三国演义这段血腥而辉煌的历史作为我们的研究课题。通过这段历史，我们可以理解2000年前古人的勇气和智慧。在我们的板报上，我们收集的第一手资源主要来自博物馆遗物的图片，以及三国领袖写的一些诗歌。二手资源主要来自中国的学术网站。

虽然我们的团队没有达到我们设定的标准，但我们仍然为自己的努力而自豪。我相信我们这次的挫折为我们明年的比赛做下了更好的准备。明年的NHD主题是“突破”; 我们突破自己！

1. Fom your perspective, how was NHD different from daily courses and how could it benefit students?

NHD is a long-term project, so it allows students to learn how to work in teams and split tasks effectively, manage their time wisely, and conduct high quality, in-depth research on a topic of their choice.

NHD是一个需要大量时间投入的比赛，因此它培养了学生的团队工作能力，有效分配任务的能力，以及时间管理的能力，并对他们选择的主题进行深入的研究。

2. What’s the future plan for NHD? (E.g. Do you plan to expand the number of participants from only the AP World History class to whole school?)

The students’ enthusiasm needs to improve along with their time management. The topic for the competition is always given the year before, so it doesn’t make sense that students are rushing to finish a project just weeks before the deadline.

在整个NHD过程中，学生们对于NHD活动的热忱度以及时间管理的能力还需要再提升一下。NHD今年的话题在去年有给出，但是部分学生在最后还是来不及给自己的项目更好的收尾。如果能更好的安排时间分配计划，下一次NHD比赛我们会更有竞争力。

3.What need to be improved?

I was really surprised when I received a special award. I think it was mostly due to the fact that I chose an interesting topic and was able to do some research in French, which my judge told me really impressed him. I feel like I could have done better but it is encouraging to know that my work was liked.

当我获奖时，我真的很惊讶。我认为这主要是因为我选择了一个有趣的话题，并且能够用法语进行一些研究。我的评委对我说，他对我印象非常深刻。我觉得我其实可以做得更好，但我真的很高兴知道大家喜欢我的论文。

18/03/2019 School News