March 7, 2016 THE NATIONAL HISTORY DAY® CONTEST IS IN FULL SWING AROUND THE WORLD WASHINGTON, D.C.—Around the world middle and high school students are presenting National History Day projects at local and regional contests, hoping to advance to the next level. Social media users can follow their progress by searching the hashtag #NHD2016. Numerous schools, students, and affiliates are posting pictures and videos of their best work. The contests are held in the spring in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, American Samoa, Guam, and at international schools in Central America, China, Korea, and South Asia. Students create historical projects in one of five categories: documentary, exhibit, paper, performance, or website. Using primary and secondary sources, participants focus their projects around an annual theme. The 2016 theme is Exploration, Encounter, Exchange in History. The top two entries in each category from each affiliate are invited to the Kenneth E. Behring National History Day Contest held in College Park, Maryland, June 12 through 16. Most affiliate contests have public viewings of the projects and students are often eager to talk about their research and findings. A full list of the affiliate contests is below. Contact information for all of the affiliate coordinators is available at nhd.org/affiliates. “National History Day is more than just a day, it’s an experience,” said National History Day Executive Director Dr. Cathy Gorn. “Creating an entry for the Contest helps students hone research and critical thinking skills that are hugely beneficial to college and career readiness. And, the competitive aspect of the contest is often a nice motivator to nudge students to go above and beyond what they might otherwise have done.” Founded in 1974 at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, the National History Day Contest was created to inspire students to conduct original historical research. Since its creation, the contest has grown to an international competition with more than 600,000 participants that awards thousands of dollars in scholarships and prizes annually. This is the list of all National History Day Affiliate Contests. Affiliate: Contest Date: Alabama March 6, 2016 Alaska March 28, 2016 American Samoa April 6-8, 2016 Arizona April 16, 2016 Arkansas April 16, 2016 California May 6-7, 2016 China March 5, 2016 Colorado April 30, 2015 Connecticut April 30, 2016 Washington, D.C. March 23-24, 2016 Delaware April 23, 2016 Florida May 1-3, 2016 Georgia April 23, 2016 Guam March 5, 2016 Hawai‘i History Day April 16, 2016 Idaho April 23, 2016 Illinois May 5, 2016 Indiana April 23, 2016 Iowa April, 25 2016 Kansas History Day April 23, 2016 Kentucky April 30, 2016 Korea February 27, 2016 Louisiana History Day April 9, 2016 Maine April 9, 2016 Maryland History Day May 7, 2016 Massachusetts April 9, 2016 Michigan April 30, 2016 Minnesota May 1, 2016 Mississippi March 5th, 2015 Missouri April 30, 2016 Montana National History Day April 2, 2016 Nebraska April 16, 2016 Nevada (north) April 16, 2016 Nevada (south) April 9, 2016 New Hampshire April 2, 2016 New Jersey May 7, 2016 New Mexico April 29, 2016 New York April 18, 2016 North Carolina April 30, 2016 North Dakota April 15, 2016 Ohio April 30, 2016 Oklahoma National History Day May 4-5, 2016 Oregon Historical Society April 23, 2016 Pennsylvania May 10-11, 2016 Rhode Island April 9, 2016 South Asia March 12, 2016 South Carolina April 23, 2016 South Dakota April 7, 2016 Tennessee April 9, 2016 Texas April 30, 2016 Utah April 16, 2015 Vermont History Day April 2, 2016 Virginia April 23, 2016 Washington State April 23, 2016 West Virginia April 9, 2016 Wisconsin April 23, 2016 Wyoming April 10 - 11, 2016 About National History Day: NHD is a non-profit education organization in College Park, MD. Established in 1974, NHD offers year-long academic programs that engage over half a million middle- and high-school students around the world annually in conducting original research on historical topics of interest. These research-based projects are entered into contests at the local and affiliate levels, where the top student projects have the opportunity to advance to the National Contest at the University of Maryland at College Park. NHD also seeks to improve the quality of history education by providing professional development opportunities and curriculum materials for educators. NHD is sponsored in part by Kenneth E. Behring, Patricia Behring, HISTORY®, Jostens, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the National Park Service, Southwest Airlines, the Joe Weider Foundation, and the WEM 2000 Foundation of the Dorsey & Whitney Foundation. For more information, visit nhd.org. ### .