Published: April 23, 2006

Hundreds of Colorado middle and high school students will be on the University of Colorado at Boulder campus Saturday, April 29, to compete in Colorado History Day.

About 600 students in grades six through 12 will compete in the event, which is part of the largest national humanities education program in the country. The event is free and open to the public and will be held from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. in the University Memorial Center and other campus locations.

The theme of this year's competition is "Taking a Stand in History: People, Ideas, Events." The winners will represent Colorado in the National History Day competition in June.

"I don't know of any other opportunity for students to do research and analysis at the same level found during the Colorado History Day competition," said Beth Kovacs, Colorado History Day state coordinator. "We see a lot of work similar to what is done in college. It's a great way for these students to become research savvy."

About 400 teams will be judged on dramatic performances, museum-style exhibits, multimedia documentaries or research papers that they produced based on this year's theme. The students, many of whom have worked on their projects for the entire school year, competed in one of 10 regional competitions before moving on to the state level at CU-Boulder.

CU-Boulder's history department has been coordinating Colorado History Day since 1984. Colorado History Day sponsors are the CU-Boulder College of Arts and Sciences, Colorado Endowment for the Humanities, CU Outreach Committee, The Denver Post, History Advisory Board, Edward Madigan Foundation, CU Office of Community Relations, Optimist Club of Monaco South and Boulder Odd Fellows Lodge No. 9.

For more information, including a complete schedule, call (303) 492-5845 or visit the Web site at .