3 Mead projects advance to National History Day Competition

Six Mead Junior High School students have qualified for the National History Day competition June 12-16 in College Park, Maryland.

• Armaan Goyal qualified in the Performance category for his project entitled “Diplomacy at Fort Dearborn.” He prepared a one-man show about 10 minutes long where he portrayed four different historical perspectives during the War of 1812.

• Arun Arjunakani and Benjamin Cooper qualified in the Website category for their project focused on the O'Hare Expansion debate. They interviewed the mayor of Elk Grove Village and created a website detailing the many perspectives on expanding the airport. The website can be found at http://44339350.nhd.weebly.com/index.html.

• Kevin Hong, Glenn Huang and William Chen qualified in the Documentary category for their project titled “Illinois Secession during the Civil War?” Their documentary addressed the historical issues that faced Illinoisans as states began to secede from the Union.

Mead also qualified two exhibits and two research papers for the State History Expo. These Mead students earned superior ratings from all the judges. They are:

• Teresa Paton, Sarah Bier and Jung-Yun Han for their exhibit on Internment Camps;

• Lisa Yang, Anisha Chandran, Catherine Demaret, Kaitlin Luedecke and Marianna Pachacz for their exhibit on the debate between Chicago and St. Louis over the Reversal of the Chicago River;

• Kevin Chang for his research paper on the Lincoln-Douglas debates; and

• Lisa Michelini for her research paper on the debate over charter schools.

The theme this year was "Debate and Diplomacy in History." About 100 Mead students worked from four to six months and competed at a local fair, a regional fair and the State History Expo on May 3. Professional educators and historians served as the judges.

According to www.nationalhistoryday.org, each year more than half a million students participate. Students choose a historical topic related to the theme, conduct research, analyze and interpret their sources, and then draw a conclusion about the significance of their topic. Students can present their work as a research paper, an exhibit, a performance, a documentary or a website.

For more information call one of the Mead sponsoring teachers -- Cheryl Hinchey, Julie Morrison. Mark Fletcher -- at (847) 357-6000.