Hundreds of students from throughout Colorado will converge on the University of Colorado at Boulder campus to present a wide array of projects, many a year in the making, during the 21st annual Colorado History Day next week.
About 600 students in grades six through 12 will compete in the event on Saturday, April 27, from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on the CU-Boulder campus. The winners will move on to the National History Day competition in June.
Â鶹ÒùÔº will present projects, all stemming from a historical theme chosen by the program's national coordinators. This year the theme is "Revolution, Reaction and Reform in History."
"Colorado History Day brings together students from all over our state and allows them to show off projects they have been working on since the school year began," said Nancy Brown, Colorado History Day state coordinator and a CU- Boulder doctoral student.
Competing students have prepared projects in one of four categories -- papers, media (documentaries and multi-media), exhibits and performance -- all expanding on the revolution theme in some manner. Last year Colorado became the first state to have some students present projects in Spanish, an option that is being continued this year.
Brown said the event gives students an opportunity to display their knowledge and unique creative talents in the same kind of light as student athletes and those in science-based competitions.
"As part of the largest national humanities education program in the country, Colorado History Day lets students showcase their talents in a subject area that is not science oriented," she said.
Titles of some of this year's entries include "Sabina Gokcen: The First Female Pilot in Turkey;" "From Gibson Sweet to Flapper Chic: The Fashion Revolution of the 1920s;" "Warsaw's Heroes: Reacting with Dignity in the Face of Evil;" "Rachel Carson and DDT: A Spring Without Voices;" and "Frida Kahlo: Mexican Revolutionary Artist."
Student exhibits will be open for public viewing in the University Memorial Center Ballroom from 1 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. The awards ceremony will begin at 3:30 p.m. Â鶹ÒùÔº presenting papers, media projects or performing will be in the Eaton Humanities Building or Hellems Arts and Sciences.
The awards ceremony will begin with a reprisal of a scene from the CU-Boulder theater department's production of "The White Rose" presented by CU-Boulder undergraduates Jessie Fisher and Eric Pasto-Crosby. The play is about a student group from the University of Munich who organized an underground anti-Nazi propaganda campaign during 1942, demonstrating the revolutionary spirit.
State winners will go to National History Day at the University of Maryland at College Park June 9 -13 to compete with students from throughout the nation.
Beginning in September 2001, about 4,000 students in Colorado began conducting research, preparing their projects and competing with others for the opportunity to take part in the Colorado History Day competition at CU-Boulder.
CU-Boulder's history department has been coordinating Colorado History Day since 1984, shortly after the program debuted in 1981 as a small contest with 75 student participants.
For more information call (303) 492-5845 or visit the Web site at .