Barone Middle School history students competed at a regional History Day competition in Grand Junction recently. | COURTESY PHOTO
MEEKER I Each year, several Barone Middle School eighth-graders have the opportunity to compete in National History Day. The national history competition selects a different theme each year, this year’s being “Debate and Diplomacy,” and allows students to research any topic of interest falling under the broader theme.
Students have the opportunity to create an exhibit, website, documentary, paper or performance for competition on local, regional, state and national levels. Meeker’s local competition was held in February with volunteer community members who interviewed and provided commentary on students’ projects that students could use to modify their work before the regional competition. This year’s panel of judges included Ann Franklin, Mandi Etheridge, Stacey Burke, Alicia Watt, and Julia Eskelson.
Of those who competed locally, 16 students (four group exhibits, five individual exhibits, two individual documentaries, and one group website) advanced to Grand Junction for the regional competition held in early March. At regionals, the projects that place in the top three in each category advance to the state level competition which will be held on April 30. The placings of Meeker students at regionals that will be advancing to state are as follows.
Group Exhibits:
• 1st–Lovings vs Virginia, Braydin Raley and Hayden Garcia
• 2nd–Women’s Suffrage, Lili Piper, Lilly Newman, Birdie McCaffrey
• 3rd–American Indian Movement (AIM), Amber Castillo and Jaicee Simmons
Individual Exhibits:
• 1st–Shirtwaist Factory Fire, Morgan Keetch
• 2nd–Cuban Missile Crisis, Dublin Price
Group Website:
• 2nd–Abortion, Autumn Stallings and Jacey Follman
Kris Casey, social studies teacher at Barone Middle School, promotes History Day in her own classroom every year and helps students in formulating their research projects. “As you can see from the list we did quite well at the Regional Competition,” she states, “It may be the first time Barone swept the group exhibit category.”
Students shared their projects at the quarterly membership meeting of the Rio Blanco County Historical Society on Sunday, April 10, and responded to questions from those in attendance.
By KATIE LOCKWOOD
Special to the Herald Times
