OKALOOSA COUNTY, Fla.—Five students enrolled at the Okaloosa STEMM Academy are among the 2024 Florida History Day (FHD) contest winners.
This year’s state contest, sponsored by the Museum of Florida History, was held at Tallahassee Community College on May 6.
Caden Crawley received the first-place award in the Junior Individual Performance category for Florida’s Tourism Turning Point: How One Man’s Dream Became the State’s Biggest Business.
Jaylyn Contento and Austin Gritter received the second-place award in the Junior Group Exhibit category for their exhibit titled America’s First Transcontinental Railroad.
Jaedyn Ellis and Ashlynn Nolan received the third-place Junior Group Website category award for Jesse Owens: Running Through Hitler.
Click here for a complete listing of contest winners.
“I want to congratulate this year’s Florida History Day winners, as well as all of the students who participated and the parents and teachers who supported them,” said Secretary of State Cord Byrd. “I had the opportunity to see several of the projects, and I was impressed by the students’ thorough research, creativity, and hard work.”
At this year’s state competition, 858 middle and high school students representing 160 schools presented award-winning research in a variety of media, including documentaries, exhibits, papers, performances, and websites. The top two winners of each category are invited to represent Florida at the National History Day contest in June.
Florida History Day (FHD) is an annual, statewide activity that enhances the teaching and learning of history in middle and high school.
Florida joins 49 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, American Samoa, Guam, and international schools in East and South Asia as an affiliate of National History Day® (NHD). NHD promotes history in the classroom by offering students the resources and support to do original research about people, ideas, and events of the past. The curriculum supports the project-based learning approach.