Every year, students across the country complete National History Day projects. All of those projects must relate to a theme, which changes every year.

 

The theme is broad enough to include community, state, national, or international research topics. Your topic should relate to the theme and, most importantly, be of interest to you. National History Day offers a full explanation of the yearly theme and provides sample topics.

 

Reading The Theme

 

Read the entire theme. Do you understand the concepts?  To make sure, start by defining each word in the theme using a site like Dictionary.com.

 

Keep the entire theme in mind, including any sub-title. A sub-title to a yearly theme might help you to narrow your research topic.  You can find a description of the theme at the National History Day Annual Theme site.

 

Finding Examples

 

A good way to get a full understanding of the yearly theme is to look at sample topics.  The National History Day website lists sample topics on their Annual Theme page.

 

The Minnesota Historical Society also has information related to the program and theme on their History Day site.

 

What's Next?

 

Now that you've gained a full understanding of this year's History Day theme, you can move on to finding a topic to research that interests you related to that theme.