Four Battle Ground students earn spot in National History Day finals

Battle Ground — Four students from Battle Ground will represent Battle Ground Public Schools in the National History Day finals June 10-14 at the University of Maryland in College Park. Chief Umtuch Middle School eighth-grader Karleigh Potter and Pleasant Valley Middle School seventh-graders Logan Bigelow, Lucas Braunschweig and Jaxon Lewis all earned spots in the national finals for their performance in the Washington State National History Day competition in Auburn in April. This year’s theme is “Conflict and Compromise in History”; students had to conduct research and analysis on the topic before developing projects, such as research papers, performances, documentaries and websites. Karleigh took first place in the Individual Exhibit category for her project, “Small Feet, Big Strides: Birmingham’s Conflict and Compromise,” where she examined the events surrounding the 1963 children’s march in Birmingham, Ala. She watched “hours upon hours” of documentaries, read newspapers and collected books from the library and online for her research. Her exhibit will be on display at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History on June 13. The team of seventh-graders finished at the top of the Website category for their project, “Compromise, Key to Success: James Reed Ellis and METRO.” They also won the Washington State Archives Special Award for research they conducted and documents they discovered, and will present their research to the secretary of state at the state archives in Olympia.