HCPSSHCPSS Students Advance to 2022 State History Day Competition
March 17th, 2022
The Howard County Public School System hosted its 18th annual History Day competition in early March. This year’s virtual event, sponsored by the Office of Secondary Social Studies and the Gifted and Talented Education Program, included 171 project entries presented by 264 students, representing 22 middle and five high schools.
Students in grades 6-12 conducted research related to this year’s National History Day theme,
“Debate and Diplomacy in History.” Students analyzed information, drew conclusions and created a History Day project to submit for review first at the school level and then at the countywide competition.
HCPSS awarded first, second and third place winners in each of five categories: exhibit, performance, multimedia documentary, research paper and website. The top two entries in each category advance to the state contest, to be held April 30 at University of Maryland, Baltimore County. Special awards also were presented to students by The Council of Elders of Howard County, the Howard County Women’s Bar Association, and the Howard County Chinese School.
Additionally, the Office of Secondary Social Studies named Tracy Spillman as the Howard County History Day Teacher of the Year. Spillman is a Gifted and Talented resource teacher at Lime Kiln Middle School. She is one of the few remaining original LKMS staff members and was featured in an HCPSS Staff Focus in 2018.
More than 60 teachers, Central Office staff, Board of Education members, county government representatives, university interns, business partners and community members volunteered as judges to evaluate student entries.