OkNHD for Parents and Students
General Information
Students who participate in National History Day (NHD) develop and improve a number of skills including research, writing, presentation, and interviewing.
Oklahoma NHD staff can assist students, parents, and teachers along the way and offer guidance when needed. There is an assortment of resources available from state NHD programs as well as the national NHD office to help make your student’s project a success.
Categories
Students who participate in NHD have several choices for presenting their research in creative form. Students can compete as individuals or in groups. In addition, students are divided into the junior division (grades 6–8) and senior division (grades 9–12) to help keep the contest competitive. They may enter one of nine categories:
- Paper (individual only)
- Individual Exhibit
- Group Exhibit
- Individual Performance
- Group Performance
- Individual Documentary
- Group Documentary
- Individual Website
- Group Website
Each category in each division is judged separately. Group entries may include two to five students. Group participants do not have to be in the same grade to compete together, but they must be in the same division.
- What is a historical paper?
- What is a historical exhibit?
- What is a historical performance?
- What is a historical documentary?
- What is a historical website?
Read the Rules
Before your student begins working on an entry for the competition, you and your student should carefully read the National History Day Contest Rule Book. In order to ensure students across the country participate in a fair contest that judges students equally, National History Day sets the rules and guidelines for all participating entries. All judges are familiar with the rules.
National History Day Contest Rule Book (PDF)
National History Day manual de reglas para competencias (PDF)
Contact your district or state coordinator to learn if any rules have been revised since the publication of this rule book and for more information on topics, sources, and deadlines.
More Information
If you have questions or would like more information about ways that you can help your student succeed during the History Day process, please do not hesitate to contact the OkNHD staff at oklahomanhd@gmail.com.
