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National History Day is a yearlong academic program focused on historical research, interpretation and creative expression for sixth to 12th grade students through project-based learning. The program promotes a love of research and history, as well as the development of critical thinking, writing and research skills.

Both! National History Day is a project based learning curriculum, but it also has an accompanying/optional competition component which allows students to present and compete their research to professional judges at the school, region, state and national level.

To participate in National History Day in South à£à£Ö±²¥Ðã, schools pay a membership fee of $45 ($35 prior to Oct. 31), and individuals or homeschool families pay $25.50 ($17.50 prior to Oct. 31). The membership covers all the school's participating teachers for the academic year. The membership provides access to competitions and free resources including the National History Day Theme Book and Rule Book. Schools and teachers can learn more about how to register.

Students have the freedom to choose between the following project types: documentary, exhibit, paper, performance or website. Students may create either an individual or group project, with the exclusion of the paper category, which is individual only. Students are allowed to pick a historical topic of their choice, as long as it relates back to the National History Day yearly theme. This freedom of topic choice gives students the opportunity to explore history through their own interests and often gives them a voice to share their personal interests, histories and cultures with an audience. The 2026 National History Day theme is . To explore South à£à£Ö±²¥Ðã historical topics connected to this year's theme check out the National History Day in South à£à£Ö±²¥Ðã Theme Topic Explorer. This resource is provided by National History Day in South à£à£Ö±²¥Ðã to inspire students' historical research pursuits and to get them to see connections between the theme and their state's rich history.

• National History Day promotes critical thinking, writing and research skills, which boost academic performance across multiple subject areas and promote college- and career readiness skills.
• An independent study from 2011 found that participation in the National History Day contest benefits students far beyond the competition, with National History Day students outperforming their non-National History Day peers on state standardized tests in multiple subjects.

In South à£à£Ö±²¥Ðã, the contest component is divided between the region, state and the national levels. South à£à£Ö±²¥Ðã is made up of four regional contests divided geographically across the state. While the state program does not run school-level contests, we do have many schools who choose to hold their own local contests to narrow down the level of student projects they send to compete at the regional contests.

Students who place first or second at state are invited to attend at their own cost the national-level National History Day competition as a member of Team South à£à£Ö±²¥Ðã. The national contest takes place at the University of Maryland in College Park, Maryland. Students represent their respected state or country competing against all 50 states and eight other nations. Students at the national contest also have the opportunity to explore the D.C. area, as National History Day partners with numerous museums and attractions, like the Smithsonian, which often allows students the opportunity to tour, visit and even present their work at their institutions.