Students

Whether you have participated in History Day before or are starting your first project, these tools and resources will guide you through creating and presenting your project. Learn the ins and outs of state and national contest participation, browse sample projects for inspiration, and explore resource guides that will help you choose a topic and design your project.

Student Resources

Are you a student interested in participating in OHD even if your school does not? Fill out the OHD Independent Student Enrollment Form today!

Getting Started

Welcome to Oregon History Day!

This year you will join over half a million students from across the country who participate in History Day through national, state, and school contests. Oregon History Day (OHD), an affiliate of the National History Day® (NHD) program, is a challenging and rewarding experience that requires you to select a historical topic related to an annual theme, research the topic using primary and secondary resources, and present your research in one of five project categories: documentary, exhibit, paper, performance, or website.

Contest Theme and Rules

Before starting your OHD project journey, be sure to read up on the OHD and NHD contests, including learning about this year’s contest theme and reading the contest rules on the State and National Contest Information page.

Choose a Topic

A topic is a part of history that you want to study. You can select any topic you want as long as it fits within this year’s contest theme. Finding a topic that is just right — not too big or too small — can be challenging, but your teachers and the Oregon Historical Society are here to help.

Questions to Consider

When choosing a topic for your OHD project, here are some questions to consider:

  • What parts of history interest you?
  • How does history overlap with your personal interests?
  • What parts of history align well with this year’s theme?
  • What type of project do you want to complete?
  • Can you find sources (primary and secondary) about your topic?
  • What resources are nearby or online that might help you research your topic?

Explore Resources at the Oregon Historical Society

The Oregon Historical Society’s digital history projects are great places to start when thinking about Oregon-related topics. For an in-depth overview on how you can use OHS resources to create your Oregon History Day project, please refer to the OHS Research Tools Guide.

  • The Oregon Encyclopedia “Themes” page organizes all encyclopedia entries by overarching topics, which include arts, Black history, climate change, environment and natural resources, sports and recreation, women, and more. Explore entries by theme to find a topic in history that you might want to research.
  • You can search the Oregon History Project for digitized primary sources — objects, letters, maps, photographs, and more — by theme as well as time period and place.

NHD Resources

NHD has created resources for this year’s theme that will help you narrow down your topic:

Still Stuck?

Check out the Categories, Sample Projects, and Requirements page to explore sample projects for inspiration!

Choose a Project

Once you have read the contest rules, understand the annual theme, and have chosen a topic, you will need to decide how to present your work. Regardless of what project category you choose, all OHD and NHD projects must include an annotated bibliography and process paper.

The five OHD and NHD project categories are: documentary, exhibit, paper, performance, and website.

Visit the Categories, Sample Projects, and Requirements page to learn about each project category, see examples of student work in each of the five categories, and learn more about the annotated bibliography and process paper.

Research Your Topic

Once you select a topic for your OHD project, you are ready to begin your research. OHS has created a How to Research Your Topic and Build a Historical Argument guide that includes research tips and tools, including local, regional, national, and online resources.

Historical Context

Each project should provide historical context, or what was going on before, during, and after your topic. Check out NHD’s What is Historical Context? page to learn more.

Primary and Secondary Sources

To learn about historical context, historians use two main types of resources:

  • Primary Sources: These are sources created during the time that an event took place. Examples of primary sources include documents, objects, historical sites, songs, photographs, letters, or any other written or tangible item from the time period you are studying. Learn more about primary sources on NHD’s What is a Primary Source? page.
  • Secondary Sources: These are sources that tell, analyze, or interpret events. Historians create secondary sources based on their interpretation of primary sources. Secondary sources are usually created long after an event has occurred and are important resources to consider when providing historical context. Learn more about secondary sources on NHD’s What is a Secondary Source? page.

You can also explore the following resources to learn how to find and evaluate various sources:

Developing a Historical Argument

All projects should tell a story, but they also must make a historical argument that explains why that story is important. After you research your topic and analyze your sources, your historical argument will start to take shape. A historical argument should include:

  • Thesis: A strong History Day thesis statement is one that presents historical interpretation backed by evidence. It thoroughly explains the who, what, where, when, why it happened, and why it holds significance. This statement is also referred to as a historical argument or claim and typically consists of two to three sentences. It must be explicitly tied to the contest’s annual theme.
  • Evidence: Your research provides the evidence to support your thesis and historical argument.