Piñon Elementary Hosts First National History Day Contest with 44 Sixth-Graders

Piñon Elementary hosted its first National History Day school contest, drawing 44 sixth-graders who presented projects in five categories: performance, documentary, website, paper and exhibit. The school-level competition showcased student research and local mentorship, and it created a pipeline to district, state and national contests that matters to families and educators in Los Alamos County.

Workshops led by Los Alamos Middle School NHD students helped prepare the sixth-graders, and judging was handled by parent volunteers, volunteers from the Los Alamos Historical Society and representatives from the New Mexico NHD organization. Courtney Smith, Piñon Elementary’s NHD coordinator, said, “They worked hard on their projects, and their efforts paid off,” and added, “Being able to host this event for the first time at our school is a great accomplishment.”

Winners at the school contest included Winnie Birocco and Nixyn Martines, who took first in Group Performance. Olivia Conner-Lee won first in Individual Performance. The Group Documentary first-place team consisted of Garrett Hodgson, Carlos Marquez, Finnly Harrison, Benjamin Lee and Benjamin Fichtel. In Historical Paper, Aditya Nag placed first and Jonas Whitton took second. Individual Documentary winners were Grant Mason in first, Mason Englert in second and Hilario Salinas in third. The Group Website first-place team included Avery Medina, Elizabeth Adams, Kimberly Gates and Harper Clark, while Thomas Starrett and Lucas Kliessen placed second in Group Website.

The Piñon contest also connects to recent regional and state competition results. Five Piñon sixth-graders who placed at regionals in March advanced to the state contest at the University of New Mexico. At the state level, Brandon Keller took first place in the Junior Paper category and will be competing at the National History Day contest in June. Evan Cunningham and Isaac Light won third place in the Junior Group Documentary category and are alternates for the national contest. Audrey Deines and Sarah Sanders competed in the Junior Group Exhibit with a rotating exhibit on Gutenberg’s printing press.

National History Day, founded in Cleveland in 1974, uses an annual theme to guide student research and presentation; this year’s theme is “Turning Points in History.” The competition’s structure - local contests feeding regionals, affiliates and state contests, with top state finishers advancing to nationals - aims to teach research, synthesis and public presentation skills at the elementary and middle school levels.

The Los Alamos Historical Society will host an evening district showcase of NHD projects at Fuller Lodge on Tuesday, February 24, giving families and neighbors a chance to see student work beyond the school setting. For residents, the school contest underscores local investment in K-12 civic learning and mentorship, and it highlights individual students like Brandon Keller who will represent Los Alamos on the national stage in June.