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St. Charles students participate in History Day
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Neighbors | Sarah Foor .Seventh-grader Kellyn Jamison (left) focused her History Day project on the Chautauqua Movement. Jamison said that she visits Chautauqua, New York every summer, and was interested to learn more about the city and it's history.
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Neighbors | Sarah Foor .Joey Stefko based his History Day project on the Berlin Wall after seeing a section of the wall on display at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.
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Neighbors | Sarah Foor .Jamie Vitullo reported on the Vietnam War for his History Day report. Vitullo interviewed a Vietnam veteran for his report, as well as St. Charles principal Mary Welsh, who protested the war in high school.
By SARAH FOOR
The seventh-graders at St. Charles School have spent the last two months helping history come alive. That included participating in National History Day at their school on March 1, merging their personal interests with the event’s theme of “Revolution, Reaction, Reform in History.”
History Day has been a focus in the seventh-grader’s History and Language Arts classrooms since January. During the project, students must choose a historical topic to explore and conduct extensive research, as well as present their work in a paper, visual display and oral presentation.
“History Day is an important event for the students because it is the first large research project that they conquer. We teach the basics of collecting and citing sources and those are skills that will serve the students for a long time,” said Kathleen Schneider, who teaches Language Arts for seventh and eighth grade.
“It’s also important that the students learn how to communicate and relay their message during their oral presentation. It’s not just about doing the research — it’s also about bringing it to life for the judges,” added Pamela Pasquale, seventh and eighth-grade history teacher.
The St. Charles seventh-graders explored subjects like cubism, the arrival of MTV, the Holocaust and the manufacture of the first Model-T Ford.
During her summers, Kellyn Jamison visits a summer camp at the Chautauqua Institution in Chautauqua, N.Y., and wanted to learn more about the institution.
“I did my project on the Chautauqua movement, which is an educational movement that celebrated art and culture in rural communities. It was really cool to learn that there was this nationwide movement that began in the place where I go during the summer,” Jamison said.
Bridget Sweeney, a champion Irish step dancer, based her report on the potato famine that spurred Irish immigration to the United States.
“It meant something to me and that was why I enjoyed it,” she said.