Four middle school students qualify for National History Day state competition

Three Sycamore Springs Middle School students and one Dripping Springs Middle School student have advanced to the National History Day state competition after each placing second in their respective events at the regional competition. It is the first time both DSISD schools will be represented at the state level.

DSMS seventh-grader Grant Gillum advanced to state for his individual website titled “Spelling Space: The Significance of Propaganda During the Space Race.” His sponsoring teacher is Shanon Montgomery.

SSMS seventh-grader Stephanie Gearing and eighth-grader Michael Gearing qualified for the state competition for their group website titled “Marie Curie: Perception vs. Reality -- How Bias and Miscommunication in Secondary Sources Distorts the Truth.” The pair advanced to the national competition last year as the first-ever DSISD qualifiers.

Seventh-grader Luke Voss advanced to the state competition for the second-straight year for his individual documentary titled “Code Talkers: Native American Heroes.” Luke placed fourth at last year's state competition.

Kibbie Jensen is the SSMS sponsor while Travis Baker i Luke Voss’ teacher.

National History Day® (NHD) is a non-profit education organization based in College Park, Maryland. NHD offers year-long academic programs that engage more than 500,000 middle- and high-school students around the world annually in conducting original research on historical topics of interest.