Approaching Your Topic
Understanding the Theme
Use this National History Day Theme Book and graphic organizer to understand the theme for this year. Each theme:
- Is broad enough so that you can select topics from any place and time period
- Applies to local, national, or world history
Explore topic ideas for the 2023-2024 theme "Turning Points in History" in this comprehensive list from the Minnesota Historical Society.
Plus, learn more about this year's theme and how it applies to Minnesota subjects on MDL's new theme page.
Investigate
Once you have selected a topic that fits this year's theme, start researching. Start by investigating:
- The topic's historical context and significance
- The topic's relationship to the theme
Conduct research to support your topic at places such as:
Libraries and online collections
Online resources
Oral history interviews
Historical sites and museums
Topic Scope
When selecting your topic, keep in mind these guidelines:
- Students should pick a topic they have a genuine interest in.
- Students should select something they enjoy reading about and researching.
- Topics should be manageable. For example: focus on a particular battle within a war, specific events or factions within a revolution, or an individual involved in a cultural movement.
- Students must think historically and be careful not to focus on present day turning points.
Narrowing Your Topic
How do you take a broad topic and narrow it down into something more manageable? Students will need to READ about their topic to get a better sense and more holistic view of things before they begin to narrow their topic.
Answer the following questions to help narrow a broad topic:
- Where did this event happen?
- When did this event happen?
- Who was involved?
- What are the related events?
- Why did this event happen?
Explore more of the exhibit using the page links below.