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***image1***More than 120 students from the Kaiserslautern school district, including KMC, Geilenkirchen, Spangdahlem, Bitburg and Baumholder schools, gathered Feb. 24 at Vogelweh Elementary School to bring the past to life as part of the National History Day competition.
The middle and high school students were all first and second place winners from their schools, in one of several types of entries: papers, individual exhibits, group exhibits, individual performance, group performance, individual documentary and group documentary. Judging was further separated into junior (middle school) and senior (high school) divisions.
This is the first year that KMC schools have participated, although the national-level program has been in many U.S. schools for 25 years.
“It is so exciting for us to be part of this,” said Jody Black, NHD coordinator for the Kaiserslautern district. “These kids have put so much creativity and effort into these projects.”
“I have been really impressed today,” said Dr. Archie Bates, Kaiserslautern district superintendent. “As the grandson of an American slave, I can tell you we aren’t as removed from history as some young students may think. And I even learned a new word today – sumptuary.”
The word referred to Ramstein American Middle School seventh-grader SaDe’ Lewis’s second-place junior individual exhibit, “Sumptuary Laws,” which were designed to regulate extravagant expenditures or habits, especially on moral or religious grounds.
***image2***Ramstein American High School visually impaired senior Alex Wooten, with fellow senior Melissa Soliman, lent an authentic air to their first-place senior group performance, “Blind Faith,” telling the stories of Hellen Keller and Louis Braille.
Other first-place project titles included Bitburg High School junior Jessica Warren’s first-place senior individual exhibit, “Barbie: Cultural Communicator,” and Bitburg Middle School sister team sixth-grader Noel Day and eighth-grader Bethany Day’s senior group documentary, “Communication: The Life Blood of U.S. POWs in Vietnam, the Other Weapon in War,” concentrating on the tap code used by American POWs. The Days are the grandchildren of former Vietnam POW, retired Air Force Col. George “Bud” Day, who used the code himself during imprisonment.
The first and second place district winners will participate in the Department of Defense Dependent Schools – Europe competition in Heidelberg later this month, and possibly on to the national competition in Maryland in June.
Kaiserslautern district winners were:
Senior Division – Papers
1.) Jennifer Stechowski “Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s Fireside Chats: A President’s Amazing Ability to Communicate with a Nation in Need”
2.) Joseph Sullivan “The power of a Picture”
Junior Division – Papers
1.) Michael Shippey “Benjamin Franklin: Statesman, Inventor, Communicator”
2.)Danny Otto “The Tuskegee Airmen: Actions Speak Louder Than Words”
Senior Division – Individual Exhibit
1.) Jessica Warren “Barbie: Cultural Communicator”
2.) Zach Heath “Printing with Gutenberg”
Senior Division – Group Exhibit
1.) Alex Cobos, Nichole Griep “Dorothea Lange: Influencing a Nation”
2.) Megan Baker, Ashleigh Mindon “V-Mail”
Junior Division – Individual Exhibits
1.) Kyle Vuille “Leaving a Trail for Others: Hobos of the Great Depression”
2.) Sa De’ Lewis “Sumptuary Laws”
Junior Division – Group Exhibits
1.) Cameron Roxberry, Justin Chambers “Navajo Code Talkers”
2.) Elaine Cromer, Harlie Howard “Communicating in Secret: Women Spies of the Civil War”
Senior Division – Individual Performance
1.) Erin Elbel “Ayn Rand’s Influence on American History”
Senior Division – Group Performance
1.) Alex Wooten, Melissa Soliman “Blind Faith”
2.) Colin Dermody, Kara Elder, Charles Whatley, Amanda Woodburn, Angela Woronick “The White Rose: Communicating the Truth in Nazi Germany”
Junior Division – Individual Performance
1.) Amy Davis “The Bayeux Tapestry: Communicating in Pictures”
2.) Blair Arbuckle “The Trial of Susan B. Anthony”
Junior Division – Group Performance
1.) Jesse Johnson, Greg Marchand, Sean Mathews “Secret Communications in World War II: Codes and Ciphers”
2.) Tajaa Long, Elizabeth Rosier, Vashayla Butler “The Underground Railroad”
Senior Division – Individual Documentary
1.) Elizabeth Britt “Communicating a Culture: Jane Austen and Her Novels”
2.) Ruben Rasler “Nazi Propaganda”
Senior Division – Group Documentary
1.) Ray Benefield, Raynor Buckley, Andrew Kim, Marc Ramos, Trevor Moone “Watergate: The Documentary”
2.) Michael Koenig, Karl Grosselin “The Rosetta Stone”
Junior Division – Individual Documentary
1.) Rachel Sepanski “Those Outrageous Women: Flappers and the Roaring Twenties”
Junior Division – Group Documentary
1.) Noel Day, Bethany Day “Communication: The life Blood of U.S. POWs in Vietnam, the Other Weapon in War”
2.) Skye Brown, Prejon Henderson “Communicating Through Martin Luther King, Jr.”
