The Santos Manuel Student Union-South at Cal State San Bernardino buzzed with activity on a recent Saturday as some 500 historians shared their research with each other and panels of judges.

It was all for the 35th Annual History Day competition when fourth graders-through-high school seniors from throughout San Bernardino County presented their projects on the theme of “Rights and Responsibilities.” Students whose presentation were deemed the best advanced to the state competition in Sacramento.

It was the first time CSUSB hosted History Day, according to Michelle Lorimer, assistant professor of history, who helped organize the event with Fermín Jaramillo, coordinator from San Bernardino County Superintendent of Schools Department of Leadership and Outreach.

“The students did a lot of research over the last few months, and then they built out projects based on that research,” Lorimer said. “But overall, it's just really a celebration of all the hard work that they've put in for their families to see it and to just really enjoy a day here.”

According to the San Bernardino County Superintendent of Schools website, “History Day is an interdisciplinary program that encourages students to research and present their findings based on a historical theme. Students increase their knowledge of history through classroom activities within the content and process of social studies and language arts curriculum.”

Along with the subject matter, the presentations themselves were sophisticated. Students presented in various mediums: interactive exhibits, documentaries, websites, performances and podcasts.

Two students present their History Day project on a video monitor in one of the skyboxes at Cal State San Bernardino’s Santos Manuel Student Union-South.
Two students present their History Day project on a video monitor in one of the skyboxes at Cal State San Bernardino’s Santos Manuel Student Union-South.

“They're learning history, research, but also how to create a website, what makes a website attractive to the user, what information goes on there, and podcasts, how I do a podcast?” Jaramillo said. “These are things, obviously, I was never exposed to as a kid, but I mean, podcasts from a fourth grader, fifth grader! My gosh! Documentaries! Documentaries from sixth graders, websites from sixth graders!

“We want them to all become historians, but they may not,” he said. “But maybe they’ll be website creators. … Opening doors. That's what we want to do is open doors for all of our students. That's awesome.”

Lorimer said the approach is “based in history because the students have history or social science classes. But a lot of their projects are multidisciplinary. They research topics in the sciences, in art, in education, in psychology. It's really across the board. History is just the overarching frame for their projects.

“History provides a really solid grounding for the research skills that they need for critical thinking skills, for corroborating evidence,” she continued. “A lot of the things that we want our students to do in their daily lives, they learn through history classes now. So I think that's one of the major reasons why we use History Day as that catalyst to develop these projects.”

Lorimer also credited the teachers for inspiring their students. One, from the High Desert, led her students as they researched the Victorville 5, a police brutality case from the 1980s. Not content to rely just on written records, the students interviewed attorneys who worked on the case, “and did their own primary source research and digging.”

She also remarked on the students’ passion for their projects. “For some of them, it's not even a part of their grade or their coursework. It's extra stuff that they put on top,” she said. “So it's really phenomenal. It's great that we can support it here at CSUSB.”

And there are more plans to continue to work with the schools, Lorimer said. For example, there was a program last fall, which is scheduled again for next fall, that brought students to the university’s John M. Pfau Library, where they were shown how to do research and got a look at the university archives.

“This is a gem in our own backyard,” Jaramillo said of Cal State San Bernardino. “I was talking to a father very early today. I gave him a brief tour, and he was amazed at what's going on here. … He was very excited to just take a look and see everything that's available to students. His daughter is a fifth grader, but she's already looking at the university.”