Robert E. Lee History Fair

2010

Helpful Websites

While the internet can serve as an invaluable and time saving resource for historical research, it is important to understand that students must be diverse in their research. Judges like to see a balance of internet, books, journals, interviews, primary sources, and secondary sources in the annotated bibliography of the project. Students must understand that a thesis that lacks diverse research is difficult to defend.

National History Day Website: http://www.nationalhistoryday.org/ : Project rubrics and rules can be found at this website.

Defining Primary Sources

Students might find the following websites helpful in regard to understanding and evaluating the validity of primary sources:

• http://www.yale.edu/collections_collaborative/primarysources/

• http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/instruct/guides/primarysources.html

• http://www.ericdigests.org/1999-1/primary.html

Finding Primary Sources

Once students have a clear understanding of what a primary source is, they might find the following websites helpful for locating sources. Teachers might also find these websites useful as several of them contain lesson plans, which focus on evaluating primary sources.

• http://www.americanjourneys.org/
• http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/index.html
• http://www.archives.gov/research/arc/index.htm
• http://americanhistory.si.edu/archives/b-1.htm
• http://www.aaa.si.edu/
• http://gardens.si.edu/horticulture/res_ed/AAG/home.htm
• http://www.digital-librarian.com/electronic.html
• http://edsitement.neh.gov/
• http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/collections/florida/
• http://www.flelibrary.org/
• http://www.floridamemory.com/
• http://www.asia.si.edu/
• http://www.gilderlehrman.org/
• http://www.hanksville.org/NAresources/indices/NAhistory.html
• http://www.nasm.si.edu/research/arch/
• http://www.nmnh.si.edu/naa/
• http://www.archives.gov/
• http://africa.si.edu/research/archives.html
• http://www.nmai.si.edu/
• http://www.nps.gov/history/nr/research/
• http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/
• http://www.ourdocuments.gov/index.php?flash=true&
• http://www.nhd.org/ResearchSources.htm
• http://www.library.ucsb.edu/subjects/blackstudies/black.html
• http://siarchives.si.edu/
• http://www.indiana.edu/~socialst/
• http://www.proteacher.com/090093.shtml
• http://www.library.wisc.edu/libraries/WomenStudies/hist.htm
• http://www.academicinfo.net/histeuro.html
• http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/sbook.html
• http://www.lib.washington.edu/Subject/History/tm/europe.html
• http://www.ideafinder.com/history/timeline.htm
• http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/

Grammar and Mechanics

Even the best ideas can be disregarded if they are not presented in a coherent manner. Students must understand the importance of presentation in regard to their projects. Students might find the following sites useful during the construction of their projects.

 •http://www.unf.edu/~clifford/ca/ca.html : This website first offers advice in regard to common grammatical errors then offers suggestion on style and organization. Students might find the section titled “When to Note” particularly useful as it will help them avoid unintentionally plagiarism. The citation style described on this site is Chicago style.

•http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/01/ : This website offers advice in regard to formatting a research paper in MLA style. Its content ranges from paper format to proper construction of an MLA works cited page.