Documenting history at the middle school fair

At Woodmere Middle School’s three-day history fair — this year Feb. 6, 7 & 8 — about 250 students in sixth, seventh and eighth grade under the guidance of History Day advisors and eighth grade social studies teachers Vinny Lospinuso and Kathleen Durney, created about 130 projects as individuals or in groups.

The theme for National History Day this year is “Taking a Stand in History.” Topics covered in the projects included: women’s rights, national parks, slavery and notable figures such as Nat Turner, Alexander Hamilton, Frances Perkins and Alice Paul. Entries can range from documentaries, exhibits, historical papers, performances and websites done by one student or in a group. 

Winners at the fair advance to the Long Island History Day at Hofstra University on March 19. There is a limit of three entries per category per division per school. Long Island winners then advance to the state history fair in Cooperstown in May. State winners move on to the national fair at the University of Maryland in June. According to New York State History Day’s website, the “top two entries in each category and division at the state contest are eligible to participate in the national contest.”

Gabby Nakkab, from North Woodmere, is competing in History Day for the third year. The eighth-grader is the current New York State champion for the individual exhibit category and her project on the Gold Rush last year was displayed at the Smithsonian Museum.

Her topic this year is the Tuskegee Airmen, the first group of African-American military pilots that fought in World War II. “They supported their country that didn’t support them,” Nakkab said, of what she learned through her research.

Tamar Honore, Juliet Davydov and Rachel DeMarsico, sixth-graders and Woodmere residents, partnered on an exhibit about Nat Turner, an enslaved African-American who led a rebellion in 1831.

“We thought he was a really important figure in the black power movement,” Davydov said. DeMarsico added that she was interested to learn that he was sold three times as a child and Honore was surprised to find out that his rebellion was the bloodiest in American history.

Lospinuso, an advisor for 23 years, said each day of the fair highlighted a different set of projects. “Obviously in the age of technology, the multimedia is what’s been growing,” Durney, who has been a advisor for about 20 years, said, of the project formats. Participation in the fair is voluntary and students can choose their own research topic, she said. Fifth grade students from Ogden and Hewlett elementary schools visited the fair this year, Durney said.

Sixth-grader Rachel Kauderer produced a historical paper on Simon Bolivar, a Venezuelan soldier who liberated Venezuela, Bolivia, Colombia, Panama, Ecuador and Peru from Spanish rule. Kauderer was inspired to do her research project on him by her grandmother who is from Colombia, and from whom she got some information.

“I wanted to put it out there that Simon Bolivar helped to free maybe some of your friends and family,” Kauderer said about writing the paper to educate people on Bolivar’s lasting impact.