Blair Oaks seventh grader Madeline Rockwood was nervous when she first arrived at the National History Day Contest - there were many exhibits that were bigger than hers, had more information and even had slideshows, she said.
"They were so much more glamorous than mine was," Rockwood said. "But whenever I saw all of the judges crowding around mine, for, like, two minutes straight, I kind of thought, maybe I have a shot at this."
Whenever she heard her name called for second place, she was pleasantly surprised.
"It was a fun, interesting experience," she said.
Students who had been working on their history projects since the beginning of the school year finally got to compete at the Regional National History Day Contest on Thursday at Columbia College. Each year, about 700,000 students from across the United States participate in the National History Day Contest, according to the Missouri State Archives, which sponsored the competition this year.
The contest gives Central Missouri students in grades six through 12 the opportunity to research topics related to the contest's theme, Breaking Barriers in History, and compete by creating documentaries, exhibits, papers, performances and websites.
Seventeen Blair Oaks Middle School students competed, and four placed in the top four. These students participated as a part of their class in the gifted program.
Alyssa Roadruck won first place in exhibit, Renae Alailima won first place in website, Madeline Rockwood won second in exhibit and Ava Fleury won fourth place in research paper.
Roadruck and Alailima will go on to the next competition, and Fleury will be an alternate. The top three finishers in each category compete in the National History Day in Missouri contest on April 25 at the University of Missouri-Columbia.
First and second place finishers at the National History Day in Missouri contest proceed to the National History Day contest from June 14-18 at the University of Maryland-College Park.
Rockwood's topic was "Dr. Harvey Wiley: Breaking a Barrier of Willful Ignorance in the Dairy Industry." In the late 1800s, reports of death occured from folmaldehyde being added to milk. The dairy and meat production facilities were infested with bugs, diseases and dirt, and the food industry bribed senators and scientists so they could continue to use additives. This led Wiley to create the Food and Drug Administration in 1906.
Rockwood thought of this idea after coming across a YouTube video on the topic. At first, she didn't want to do the project, she said. But as she learned more about it, she became interested in it and wondered how people didn't know about it when it was happening, she said. She was also surprised she and other people she had spoken to had never heard of it before.
"It was really interesting to learn what it was like before we got regulations," she said.
To learn more about the National History Day contest, visit NHD.org.