February 2015 www.lightningboltonline.com
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Volume 15, Issue 5 www.facebook.com/sagehillschool
Projects Highlight Life Lessons
Kandis McGee Capturing a victorious moment. This diorama displays a scene from the significant Battle of Marathon where the Persians invaded Greece for the first time and were successfully fended off.
By Namita Prakash executive editor
Kandis McGee Learning about women in history. Freshman Sarah Takallou presents her National History Day (NHD) exhibit on feminism to freshman Justin Camp during the NHD Night Feb. 11 in the D. Diane Anderson Humanities Building.
National History Day (NHD) is an academic program designed to push students past their limits as they create a project based off weeks of investigation. These research-intensive projects were on display around the school on Feb.11 as part of the Ninth Grade History Night. “NHD promotes critical thinking and problem-solving skills, research and reading skills, oral and written communication and presentation skills, self-esteem and confidence,” history teacher Dominic Campeau explained. For six weeks, students studied topics of their choice and developed a website, paper, exhibit, performance or documentary. With the goal of helping students hone vital criticalthinking skills, the history department chose to not participate in the main NHD competition held at the county level. “We want them to be creative, go above and beyond without being limited to a specific amount of words, size, etc,” Campeau added. Primarily done by freshmen and sophomores, NHD is a vital preparatory project for the rigors of the later high school years and beyond. Freshman Madeline Sharp is grateful for the opportunity to explore a topic she feels passionate about. “I created a website on how early writers influenced Shakespeare. I focused on the influences of Plutarch and Chaucer; the connections from A Midsummer Night’s Dream to Chau-
cer’s A Merchant’s Tale and Othello to Plutarch’s How To Know A Flatterer from A Friend,” Sharp said. She recognizes her growth as a result of overcoming challenges posed by the project. “My greatest challenge was finding resources with valid information,” Sharp admitted. “My topic only had a small frame of information to write off of and it was narrowed down even more once I found the sources I was able to use.” While she understands the project’s positive impacts, Sharp also expresses appreciation for the process. “The best part of NHD was being able to do a huge project on someone whom I love. I enjoy reading Shakespeare (shocking isn’t it?) and my project allowed me to better understand how Shakespeare came up with some of the ideas for his greatest books. I thoroughly enjoyed reading all of my sources and finding out new things about Shakespeare,” Sharp said. As someone who has gone through the NHD experience twice, sophomore Nelson Kim enlarges on the positives of gaining teamwork experience. “If you have good partner, which I did last year, we motivate each other to exceed expectations,” Kim elaborated. Since NHD is a history project, however, Campeau does not fail to underscore the project’s weight in developing students’ skills as historians. “The NHD research process helps students realize that we all are the result of the past,” Campeau said. “Who we are, how we act, our values and our beliefs are all dictated by events that have taken place way before we were born. The NHD research process helps students realize that, and it gives them a chance to demonstrate how past actions impact the present.”