Southern Miss to Host National History Day Workshop at Gulf Park Campus

The University of Southern Mississippi Department of History, through sponsorship from the Mississippi Humanities Council, is hosting an instructional workshop on National History Day in Mississippi on Saturday, Oct. 8 from 10-11:30 a.m. at the Southern Miss Gulf Park Campus.

The workshop is for high school and middle school teachers, students and parents, as well as homeschooling parents of middle and high school aged children. With support from the National Endowment for the Humanities and Mississippi Humanities Council, the workshop is free and open to the public, and will be held in Lloyd Hall, room 201.

Attendees will learn more about National History Day, especially about Mississippi's state contest, which will be held in March 2017 at Southern Miss' Hattiesburg campus. Speakers at the workshop will explain how to implement National History Day projects in history, English, government, foreign language and/or social studies classes, as well as how to link these projects to testing standards in the state.

This past spring, approximately 120 students from high schools throughout the state brought their year-long research projects in the form of exhibitions, papers, documentaries, performances or websites to be observed and judged by panels that included Southern Miss history professors.

Workshop presenters include Al Wheat, history teacher at Gautier High School and co-coordinator of National History Day in Mississippi; Dr. Deanne Nuwer, associate dean of Arts and Letters-Southern Miss Gulf Coast and associate professor of history; Jane Shambra, local history and genealogy librarian from Biloxi Public Library; and Elizabeth Green, history teacher at Pascagoula High School.

History professors at Southern Miss hope to assist teachers by making National History Day a useful classroom resource, something that can enrich existing lessons and reduce the burden on already over-burdened educators. Future National History Day workshops will be held in Jackson Oct. 22 and in Columbus Nov. 12.

For more information about National History Day and a list of resources for teachers, visit www.usm.edu/history/national-history-day-mississippi.