Department of Museum Studies to serve as Northeast Tennessee Regional National History Day coordinator

The Department of Museum Program and Studies at Tusculum College is serving as the National History Day coordinator for the Northeast Tennessee region for the 2003-04 academic year.

The department has worked closely for the past two years with Mosheim Elementary School in Greene County in its National History Day activities. With support and guidance from teachers at the school as well as the department, a group of Mosheim students has advanced in each of the two years to national level competition with a self-written and performed play.

The museum looks forward to working with schools throughout Northeast Tennessee to provide the learning opportunities available through National History Day, a program of a non-profit organization of the same name that encourages greater interest in history and challenges students to conduct meaningful research. The program is for grades 6-12.

"This program has proven time and time again the value of teacher guided student research in study of history," said George Collins, director of Museum Programs for Tusculum College. "As students prepare their projects they gain not only a new appreciation of important historical events, but also skills in planning and public presentation."

Local school involvement in National History Day typically culminates around a "History Fair." Northeast Tennessee Regional National History Day will be held on the campus of Tusculum College on February 18, 2004.

For this event, students prepare exhibits, papers, creative dramatizations, and video documentaries, related to the theme selected by the national organization. The theme for 2003-2004 is "Exploration, Encounters, and Exchange In History." Students can choose to focus on local, state, national, or international topics in their projects.

The top projects in each category and grade level then advance to a district competition hosted by the East Tennessee Historical Society in Knoxville, with those winners going on to compete at the state level. State winners then advance to the national competition to be held in the at the University of Maryland.

The National History Day event has been in existence for almost 30 years, beginning with a history fair in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1974. The contest quickly expanded to other states, and in 1980 the first national contest was held in Washington, D.C. Since then, National History Day has grown to include an annual participation of more than 600,000 students and 40,000 teachers from across the country.

National History Day is a private, nonprofit organization created through a coalition of state History Day programs. Each state has a state coordinator who is affiliated with a museum, historical association, or some other educational institution.

The mission of National History Day is to improve the teaching and learning of history in elementary and secondary schools so that students become better prepared, knowledgeable citizens. The fundamental purpose of the program is to reform the way history is taught and learned by challenging students through the contest to conduct meaningful historical inquiry.

For more information about National History Day, contact Collins at Tusculum College by telephone at 1-423-636-7348 or 1-800-729-0256, or by mail at P.O. Box 5026, Greeneville, Tennessee 37743.

The Department of Museum Program and Studies administers the President Andrew Johnson Museum and Library and the Doak House Museum on the Tusculum campus. The department also offers one of the few undergraduate degree programs in museum studies in the country. The Andrew Johnson Museum houses a collection of books, papers, and memorabilia of the 17th president of the United States. The museum also houses the Charles Coffin Collection from the original college library and the College archives containing documents related to the history of Tusculum. The Doak House Museum, which was the home of the Rev. Samuel Witherspoon Doak, co-founder of the college, hosted more than 7,000 school children from Northeast Tennessee last year for a variety of educational programs related to the early 19th century.