They promote excellence in education and allow students to assimilate skills that will be applicable for a successful educational career. Several suggestions for the WHYS and HOWS of holding a local history fair are listed below.

Why schools should hold a local history fair:

1. Promote local, regional, and state history to your community. A local history fair is an excellent way to educate your community of the history that abounds throughout the state of Illinois. Make an effort to have some projects address and document local or regional history. Community pride can be developed especially when local and regional history is emphasized. This is also a great way of showing the community that your school’s history department is actively involved in the recording and preservation of local, regional, and state history.

2. Give all participating students recognition for their work. History fair projects represent a great deal of work for the students involved. A local history fair gives teachers the opportunity to give recognition to all students, including those students who are not selected to advance to regional competition. The history department should hold an awards day for all students where reinforcement of a job well done and recognition is bestowed. Celebrating the learning experience will deepen the student appreciation of their research and overall educational experience. Recognition by teachers, parents, peers, and the community will develop pride and confidence in participating students.

3. Show students in the lower grades what to expect. Students in the lower grades who are not yet involved in history fair will become excited about history if allowed to view local history fair projects. Young students will also know what a quality project looks like and thus will be able to plan ahead. The local history fair as part of the curriculum will become stronger each year if students in the lower grades are allowed to get involved. Set up a schedule so that all lower classes will be able to view the local history fair without being too crowded or rushed for time. Conclude by giving the students time to ask questions after viewing the projects.

4. Challenge students to qualify their projects for regional competition. By taking only the top projects to regional competition, all students will be challenged to do their best work in order to receive the reward of going to a regional fair. Project creativity is an element that will noticeably develop as students try to make their projects unique. Here is the opportunity for students to express their knowledge in a variety of new and exciting formats. Weak projects should not enter regional competition. The quality of each project needs to be the main focus when selecting projects for regional competition.

5. Teach students to research topics, locate primary sources, and develop writing skills. Hosting an in-school history fair is an excellent idea for involving your students in learning valuable research, writing, and other skills. Your students will incorporate the understanding of history with methods of language arts, electronic media, music, etc., to tell a story about the past. Finding primary sources to bring history alive is another skill that students will find necessary to acquire. In addition, students will also develop critical thinking and problem solving skills. Involvement in Illinois history fair projects is an exciting and innovative teaching tool that will get your students out of the classroom and into the community to investigate the past.

6. The local history fair will become a part of the curriculum. Establishing a local history fair and using it as a part of the grading system will allow the fair to become a part of the curriculum.

7. Get the community involved. Invite the community to the local history fair and place interesting projects in public locations to create interest. Involving the community often taps primary sources that may have been previously unknown and can be used for future projects.

8. Parents become involved. Hosting a local history fair can involve parents in the student’s education. Teacher/student contracts and teacher/parent contracts can actively involve parents to insure that projects develop on a timely manner. It is also an excellent way to make positive parent/teacher rapports.

9. Weaker projects will improve the following year. Comments from teachers who are experienced in running a local history fair have stated that the quality of projects increase from year to year. This is no doubt credited to the increased skills of the teachers involved as they cultivate experience, but also to the competitive nature and pride of the students involved. Using cooperative learning methods also helps students learn from each other and improves the quality of projects.

10. Great amount of control by the teacher to structure the fair. The local history fair allows teachers to recognize the students who excel at this initial level. The subjectivity of the hundreds of individuals involved in the evaluation process at the regional and statewide exposition will always be present. School history fairs can be more objective with the local teacher in control of judges and making final decisions on who advances to the regional fair. As the classroom teacher is aware of the amount of work each student invests, he/she can serve as a more informed arbiter.

How to hold a local history fair

1. Volunteer versus mandatory. Which students should get involved? Many teachers require all students to participate in the local history fair while others operate on a voluntary basis only. Often much depends upon whether or not the students are required to participate in the school’s science fair. This is an issue that can be resolved through interdepartmental cooperation.

2. Set a date for the local history fair early. Once you have decided to hold a local history fair, the teacher responsible should decide on a date with the school superintendent or principal. This will help avoid conflicts with other school activities that have been scheduled by the science, music, or art departments.

3. Contact the state or local history fair director. In order to coordinate the local history fair with the regional and state fairs, the local history fair sponsor should contact the regional history fair director or state directors. Let them know you want to start a local fair. At the state level, Keith Sculle (217) 785-6916 or Pete Harbison (217) 782-2981 should be contacted as soon as possible. They will provide all necessary information for the local sponsor to contact the regional director and to coordinate the two fairs.

4. Get the media involved. The local sponsor should contact the assignment editors from the local newspaper, television and radio stations. Let them know that you are holding a local history fair. Invite them to attend and to film or interview students and staff. Educate them as to what a history fair is. Surprisingly, the media is usually uninformed and are more than happy to cover such a unique event. This recognition by the media is simply an irreplaceable source of motivation.

5. Advertise. Use school resources to advertise. Create a local history fair web page for your school. Advertise on hallway bulletin boards, the school paper, lunch menus, posters, flyers, and place history fair pictures from local, regional, and state fairs in the school yearbook. Also, history teachers should decorate their rooms with pictures from previous fairs. Motivation radiates from these pictures when students see their peers involved in a history fair and the surrounding events.

6. When to start—a potential time line. Teachers should give their students as much time as possible to work on their fair projects. An introduction to the history fair should begin the first month of school and should continue throughout the year with the teacher having project checks every few weeks or as needed. A potential time line follows. August/September: Send informational letter to parents/guardians about the local history fair and time line necessary for the completion of student projects. Students should select topics of interest, and begin collecting bibliography sources. October/November: Select at least five primary sources, collect pictures, gather materials for projects, design a layout for backboards, write scripts, design model and media layouts. December/January: Begin to put final project together, write annotated bibliographies. February/March: Complete summary sheets, check for details, creativity, neatness, and presentation of design. The local history fair should be approximately two weeks before the regional history fair in order to forward advancing student names with project information to the regional director.

7. How do you get started? Guidelines will be mailed to you once you have contacted the regional or state directors. When this information is received, share it with your students immediately. Guidelines are provided for each of the categories that the students may enter.

8. Contact your local library. Please do not overload your local librarian! Let them know that your students will be involved in researching local, regional, and state history. Provide a list of possible research topics. Libraries may be able to stock possible research topics if they are given enough advance notice.

9. Judges. The evaluation of projects can be completed by the local sponsor, members of the local staff, qualified parents, history graduate students, faculty of nearby colleges, or a combination from this list. Rely on yourself or immediate members of your staff if it is more comfortable to do so. As you gain experience, you may want to make use of other resources in your community.

10. Which projects will advance? Remember that weak projects should not advance to regional competition. The regional or state directors will provide a copy of their evaluation sheet that can also be used at the local level. Whether you use the state evaluation form or create your own guidelines, remember to reward projects that have emphasized attention to details, neatness, creativity, and complete documentation of some aspects of history from beginning to end.

11. How to give awards and recognition. Set aside time after your local fair to recognize all students that participated. Medals, ribbons, certificates, pins, books, gift certificates, etc., can all be used as a form of recognition. Categories for recognition of projects could include: Superior (those projects that will advance to regional competition), Excellent (projects which fall just below the numerical value needed to qualify for regional competition), Most Creative, Best Design, Most Improved, etc. Include any other category you can imagine so that every student will be included. During the awards ceremony take many pictures so that you can create a bulletin board for the following year. It cannot be emphasized too often that motivation through praise, pictures of peers at the local, regional, and state history fairs, and awards will help turn your local history fair into a successful addition to your curriculum.