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NATIONAL HISTORY DAY 2016
Editor’s Notebook
H
Lynne M. O’Hara, Director of Programs, National History Day
uman history is a story of exploration. Humans are always looking for new opportunities, new frontiers,
and new avenues to get there. Exploration, Encounter, Exchange in History is a National History Day (NHD)
theme that fundamentally explores the nature of humans across time, space, and geography. It asks students to
consider what it means to take a risk and go somewhere new (exploration), what do they find when they are
there (encounter), and how these connections influence the people, societies, cultures, and geographies that are
connected (exchange).
The 2016 theme book includes the annual theme narrative and topics list, as well as a series of articles and lessons
that combine the experience of NHD teachers and coordinators with the resources of our partner organizations.
Several NHD teachers have shared their classroom expertise with us this year. Rona Johnson and Chris Carter have
developed lesson plans to help teachers explore the theme of Exploration, Encounter, Exchange in History in both
U.S. and world history classrooms.
Several of NHD’s generous partner organizations have contributed articles to this year’s theme book. Kim Gilmore
offers multimedia resources from HISTORY® to help students understand the scope of the theme. Teri Hedgepeth,
an archivist for the United States Olympic Committee, explores the theme through the lens of the 1936 Berlin
Olympics, while Kristin Schenck from the Bob Dole Archive discusses the ways in which food exchange have shaped
the career of Senator Bob Dole.
Immigration is a source of inspiration for teaching activities and case studies from Rebecca Newland, from the
Library of Congress, and Elizabeth Mauer, from the National Women’s History Museum. Murali Balaji, from the
Hindu-American Foundation, writes about encounters between Indians who traveled to the Caribbean in the
British empire, and Jessica Hopkins, from the National Archives, explores the ways in which archival documents
can open the stories of Native American boarding schools from the early twentieth century. Finally, 2016 marks the
100th anniversary of the National Park Service. This article features lessons from the Teaching with Historic Places
program to help history come to life across the nation.
National History Day is a leader in professional development for teachers that has a positive impact on student
achievement and critical thinking. The 2016 theme book is a component of this outreach. For each article that you
find in this theme book, a variety of teaching resources is accessible to teachers to print, save, edit, copy, post, or
distribute at www.nhd.org/themebook.htm.
Happy Researching!
Lynne M. O’Hara, NBCT, James Madison Fellow