Official club members participated in the showcase, which is a requirement for junior year members if they want to receive a cord to wear at graduation. A total of 93 members participated, and the Library Commons was packed with animated students talking about history all morning.
"Our NSSHS students were able to explore any historical topic of interest to them for our Showcase,” social studies teacher Alyson Moss said. “We loved seeing students research topics that they are passionate about, and we were incredibly proud of the students and their presentations this year.”
Students created presentation boards with information about their particular areas of research and gave presentations about their topics to fellow students and family members who came to see their work.
James Hernandez and Carter Mortensen researched Lech Walesa and the Solidarity movement of the late 1980s, which transformed the formerly communist country. “We wanted to learn about how communism fell,” James said.
Other topics included the English Reformation, technological advances in World War II, the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in Ukraine, American founding father Thomas Paine, the Lowell Mill Girls who worked in cotton factories and went on strike for better working conditions, and the development of the atomic bombs.
Madison Hurst was particularly interested in the development of radar and life-saving penicillin in World War II. “It’s important to know where technology comes from,” she said.
“One of the major components for the Showcase this year in particular was for students to discuss historical significance,” Ms. Moss said. “So, they had to engage with why their research is important to both the past and the present. I was so impressed to see that students were making history relevant to their lives and the world around them.”