National History Day
Turning Points In History
Welcome to the TPMS National History Day Pathfinder!
This year's National History Day theme is Turning Points in History. Watch this video for an explanation of the theme. To learn more about the theme, visit the National History Day theme page. To learn more about the project guidelines visit the getting started guide.
Serious about competing? Be sure to consult the NHD Rule Book!
Research Resources
You will need usernames and passwords to use many of the resources below. To access the passwords document, you must be logged into your MCPS Gmail account.
Recommended Websites
Docs Teach (Great for primary sources)
Docs Teach NHD 2024 (Primary sources specifically for this year's NHD theme)
Smithsonian Online Virtual Archives (Great for primary sources)
More Websites to Explore
National Museum of African American History & Culture
National Museum of American History
National Museum of the American Indian
Reference Sources
(Kid, Student, Advanced, Spanish, & Timelines)(ES, MS, & HS)(College Level)(Spanish)(Pictures of ancient documents, writing, etc. can count as primary sources!)
Interactive Learning Tools
(These will only be useful for a few topics. Don't waste time on these if your topic isn't included.)
(Educational Cartoons)(Educational Hip Hop)
South Africa, Johannesburg: Poster- anti apartheid, struggle days , June 16, (now Youth day) Hector Petersen, Soweto uprising. Graeme Williams/South. Photo. Encyclopædia Britannica ImageQuest, Accessed October 17, 2023. https://quest.eb.com/images/160_205401.
Find & cite pictures for your Project
Research Strategy
You will need to cite both PRIMARY and SECONDARY sources in your project
Primary Sources - Raw and unedited sources that give a firsthand account of a specific event from the time period when it occurred. CLOSEST TO THE ORIGIN OF INFORMATION. (Examples: diary entries, correspondences, photographs, memoirs, historical newspapers, speeches, cartoons, videos, artifacts, etc.)
Secondary Sources - These give an overview of the topic. Often analyzing, interpreting, or summarizing. RELATE TO INFORMATION THAT ORIGINATED ELSEWHERE. (Examples: reference/encyclopedia articles, textbooks, magazine articles, etc.)
*Be sure to save the citation (bibliography) for each source using NoodleTools! The Online References and Databases will make this easy for you, by providing a citation generator tool or listing the citation with the article.
Vietnam: Refugees from the defeated Republic of Vietnam being evacuated to the flight deck of a US carrier in the South China Sea, April 1975. Photograph. Encyclopædia Britannica ImageQuest, Accessed October 17, 2023. https://quest.eb.com/images/325_4369169.