Hundreds of students from throughout Colorado will converge on the ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ at Boulder campus to compete in Colorado History Day, which is part of the largest national humanities education program in the country.
About 500 students in grades six through 12 will compete in the event, which is free and open to the public, on Saturday, April 24, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on the CU-Boulder campus. The winners will represent Colorado in the National History Day competition in June, where students from 48 states will compete for national awards.
The theme of this year's competition is "Exploration, Encounter and Exchange in History."
"The atmosphere at this competition is similar to the state finals for a sporting event," said Wendy Rex-Atzet, Colorado History Day state coordinator and a CU-Boulder doctoral student. "These students have done an amazing amount of work to become experts on their chosen topics."
Competing students produce dramatic performances, museum-style exhibits, multimedia documentaries or research papers based on this year's theme. ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ compete at one of 10 regional contests throughout the state before arriving at CU-Boulder to compete at the state level.
"Colorado History Day draws students from all over Colorado representing an array of communities including ski towns, tiny agricultural communities, Front Range suburbs and inner-city Denver," Rex-Atzet said.
The winners of Colorado History Day advance to the national competition, where Colorado students have done well, especially in the past two years. In June 2003, Colorado students won a gold medal, silver medal and two other awards at the national competition held at the University of Maryland at College Park. Eight Colorado entries also qualified for the final round, a number second only to California.
Student exhibits will be open for public viewing in the University Memorial Center Ballroom from 1:30 p.m. to 3 p.m. The awards ceremony will begin at 4 p.m., also in the ballroom.
CU-Boulder's history department has been coordinating Colorado History Day since 1984, shortly after the program debuted in 1981 as a small contest with 75 student participants.
Colorado History Day is affiliated with National History Day, the largest humanities education program in the country.
For more information call (303) 492-5845 or visit the Web site at .