NOVA Features Shotwell Middle School Students’ 2016 History Day Project That Earned State Honors
The long-running documentary series focuses on science; it’s applications, history and researchers.
Educator Monica Blackshire sits with Han Van and Tatyana McClain during the interview with NOVA.
[dropcap color=”#888″ type=”square”]C[/dropcap]hoosing a History Day project can be a daunting task. The idea is to pick someone or a topic that interests you to want to dig deeper. There is also the desire to pursue a project that is different.
Tatyana McClain and Han Van competed in the [icons icon_name=”icon-external-link” icon_size=”14px”]2016 history fair. The two worked together on the project while attending [icons icon_name=”icon-external-link” icon_size=”14px”]Shotwell Middle School.
Both had seen [icons icon_name=”icon-external-link” icon_size=”14px”]NOVA’s Forgotten Genius, which aired on [icons icon_name=”icon-external-link” icon_size=”14px”]PBS. The film was about Percy Lavon Julian. He was an African-American chemist who became one of the greatest scientists of the 20th century.
Inspired by the NOVA film, they pitched an idea to their teacher Monica Blackshire. The duo wanted to compete in the Junior Group Exhibit with their entry centered on Percy Julian.
Public media gives people of all ages cultural, educational and inspirational programming.
Blackshire wasn’t familiar with the scientist. She admitted she had to do some research of her own.
“I thought it was an amazing topic,” said Blackshire. “It was different and that is important in history fair. So I gave them the OK and told them to fly.”
As they worked on researching their project, they needed to obtain real archives. So they decided to contact NOVA for help. They wrote Melanie Wallace, senior series producer. She was ecstatic.
“It made my day! It made my year!” stated Wallace. “This is why we do public television. This is why it is so important. It is all about the mission in education. It is what we strive for.”
Wallace suggested that they contact Llewellyn “Llew” Smith, the director of the film. He had talked with Percy Julian’s children and people who worked with him.
Van and Tatyana’s work paid off. They advanced through the campus, district and regional levels of competition. At the state contest, their project took third place in their category and division. They competed against 44 other exhibits.
According to the young historians, it was “a lot of hard work that paid off.”
NOVA followed the students’ progress to share with funders.
“I felt the funders of NOVA ought to know about this,” said Wallace. “Look at the money that you invested in us. You believed in us. You supported [icons icon_name=”icon-external-link” icon_size=”14px”]public media. You supported NOVA. And now it is having this huge impact on these middle school students in Houston, Texas. That’s why public media matters so much.”
View NOVA video featuring Tatyana and Han.
[youtube url=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nyYc9I4cJDY&t=9s” width=”560″ height=”315″]The two Aldine ISD students are ninth graders this year. Tatyana attends Victory Early College High School and Han is at Davis Ninth Grade School.
[icons icon_name=”icon-external-link” icon_size=”14px”]Public Media Programming … Inspiring Wonder, Discovery and Learning!
Shotwell MS is an [icons icon_name=”icon-external-link” icon_size=”14px”]International Baccalaureate® (IB) World School. The campus offers the IB Middle Years Program.
About the Author: Leticia Fehling
