PADUCAH, Ky. – Five different National History Day projects created by New Covenant Christian Academy students are moving onto the statewide competition.
COVID-19 restrictions kept the annual regional competition from being held in person at Murray State’s Crisp Center in Paducah, but students submitted work electronically to the judges. The theme was “Breaking Barriers.” The students who placed and their projects are as follows:
Fifth-graders Tage Edwards, Elijah Stanger, Joseph Vaughn created “Hemp: Breaking Barriers in Agriculture” for the Elementary Group Exhibit category.
In the Junior Group Documentary category, seventh-graders Cate Taylor and Abigail Capshaw created “How Happy Birthday Broke Barriers” and eighth-graders Samantha Molle, Anney Kelly and Kinsley Cloninger showed “Ring Ring The British are Calling the Culper Spy Ring.”
Seventh-graders Jonathan Siress, Nate Wyatt, Reid Lynch create a website about the 1966 Texas Western Miners for their division.
Eighth-grader Ethne Taylor created an individual documentary called “Walt Disney’s Barrier Breaking Movie.”
All these projects will be part of the virtual state competition. Winners from the state level advance to the national competition, which also will be virtual this year.
National History Day is an academic program focused on historical research, interpretation, and creative expression for sixth- through twelve-grade students. By participating in NHD, students become writers, filmmakers, web designers, playwrights and artists as they create unique contemporary expressions of history. The experience culminates in a series of contests at the local levels and an annual national competition in the nation’s capital in June.
NCCA history teacher Amanda Smith said the students in her fifth/sixth and seventh/eighth classes chose the topics in September.
“They spent the majority of the school year gathering resources, analyzing historical perspective, and creating a project to communicate the significance of their story,” Smith said. “I’m so proud of their hard work inside and outside of the classroom.”
This is New Covenant’s second year participating in National History Day.
“I am blessed to have Mrs. Smith as a teacher at NCCA. Her passion for history is evident and her students worked with diligence to compete in NHD this year,” NCCA Head of School Tara Siress said. “I am thrilled with their determination to continue their projects in the midst of this pandemic. To see that diligence rewarded by qualifying for state is an added blessing.”
NCCA opened for the 2010-11 school year and offers preschool through high school. Students are exposed to a God-centered biblically-based education as the foundation of all truth and knowledge. New Covenant is located at 218 College St. in Hardin. More information about the school is available online at www.nccaky.org.