Westport Students Participate Virtually In History Competition

Press release from Westport Public Schools:

April 8 2020

Westport Students Participate Virtually in the Fairfield Regional National History Day Competition

After virtual contests over the weekend, a long list of 10th grade United States History Honors students from Staples High School and 8th graders from Bedford Middle School advanced to this year’s state National History Day competition. At Staples, National History Day has continued to make the United States History Honors course a popular one for sophomores, offering students a chance to compete academically through their historical research. Drew Coyne, one of the four Staples teachers who teach the course, reflected, “Our students have been preparing for the contest since October and I have been incredibly impressed by their perseverance and dedication to National History Day despite today’s challenging circumstances. Their success is a testament to the quality of their research and ability to collaborate remotely.”

At Bedford Middle School, the program is run by Caroline Davis and Brennan Morgan as a club for interested eighth grade students. The combining of the middle schools and new schedules presented new challenges for the advisors, but they made adjustments to ensure that students would have the opportunity to participate this year. “We are so incredibly proud of our students and how they overcame such challenges this year. Their participation was a true reflection of their commitment and interest in history.”

The 2020 contest theme is Breaking Barriers in History, but this year also meant breaking some barriers in order to make the National History Day contests happen. Rebecca Taber-Conover, State History Day Coordinator, made major changes in order to organize virtual regional competitions in response to the state-wide school closures due to coronavirus. Taber-Conover wrote in a statement to participants that this was “a monumental task” as changes were made to the evaluation process, which included the elimination of in-person interviews and gallery viewing of exhibits.
The full list of projects advancing to the state competition can be viewed

https://www.historydayct.org/uploads/2/5/6/0/25607955/fairfield_master_results.pdf

This press release was produced by the Westport Public Schools. The views expressed here are the author’s own.