SANTA BARBARA, Calif. — June 9, 2009 — Eight teams of secondary students and their teacher coaches from around the country are the grand-prize winners of ABC-CLIO's 2009 research competition, “History Uncovered.” The five high school and three middle grade teams were honored from among hundreds of entries for exemplary research defending their choice of the top 10 people, events and places that shaped history. Each team and its school will receive more than $60,000 in cash and prizes.

The winning teams, the curriculum category in which they competed and their teacher/coaches are:

High School

Harpeth Hall School, Nashville, Tenn.
Teacher/Coach: Dr. Mary Ellen Pethel, Social Studies
Curriculum Category: Ancient World History

Columbia High School, Maplewood, N.J.
Teacher/Coach: JD Robinson, Social Studies
Curriculum Category: Geography

Skyview Junior High, Bothell, Wash.
Teacher/Coach: Marcus Steele, Social Studies
Curriculum Category: Modern World History (1500 CE through present)

Portland High School, Portland, Tenn.
Teacher/Coach: Helena Baier/Michelle Gilliam, Social Studies
Curriculum Category: U.S. Government and Civics

Northwest High School, Cincinnati, Ohio
Teacher/Coach: Bethany Miller, Librarian
Curriculum Category: U.S. History


Middle Grades

Solomon Schechter Day School, St. Louis, Mo.
Teacher/Coach: Mary Winslow, Sue Albert, Social Studies
Curriculum Category: Ancient Civilizations

Ferndale Middle School, High Point, N.C.
Teacher/Coach: Karen Lloyd, Media Specialist
Curriculum Category: U.S. History

Skyview Junior High, Bothell, Wash.
Teacher/Coach: Marcus Steele, Social Studies
Curriculum Category: World History: Middle Ages to Contemporary Times

The competition, in its inaugural year, was endorsed by the National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS), the largest association in the country devoted solely to social studies education.

“This competition's approach to a history research project exemplifies learning processes that NCSS considers to be vital in helping students develop a historical perspective that will enable them to make informed choices and decisions in the present, as competent and responsible citizens,” said Susan Griffin, executive director, NCSS. “We are proud of the hundreds of middle grade and high school students and their teachers and school library media specialists who took on this challenging project. We know that as they developed critical thinking and research skills, they learned a great deal about how history shapes the world we live in.”

A team of judges, which included leading historians and history educators and authors and editors, evaluated the teams' presentations and scored them based on their demonstration of the students' knowledge of topics and understanding of historical significance, historical and critical thinking skills, organization and communication of ideas, research skills, and the way their chosen electronic format supported the communication of the project content.

“We were amazed by the number of teams around the country that entered our rigorous history research competition. Our panel of judges was particularly impressed by the way that the student teams embraced the research topic and the quality and creativity that were reflected in the entries,” said Becky Snyder, president, ABC-CLIO. “The students and their teacher/coaches in these eight winning teams truly represent the best-of-the-best in thinking critically about historical events. Our winners should be incredibly proud of their accomplishments.”
Coached by their teacher and/or school library media specialist, these stellar student teams of young historians each selected their own list of the top 10 people, events or places that have shaped the course of history. Then they defended their choices with research presented to ABC-CLIO in an electronic format such as a slide show, online essay, video or animation, or an audio podcast. To conduct their research, the teams were required to use and cite one or more of ABC-CLIO's eight online history databases.

High school and middle grades grand-prize-winning teams receive a digital whiteboard, a $500 school site cash award, a one-year subscription to ABC-CLIO's award-winning online history databases and a student cash award for each participating team member.
The winning teams' presentations can be viewed at www.abc-clio.com/HallofFame/. ABC-CLIO's2010 History Uncovered competition will launch in fall 2009. Go to www.abc-clio.com/HistoryUncovered/ for more formation.


About ABC-CLIO
Founded in 1955, ABC-CLIO is an award-winning publisher of reference titles, academic and general-interest books, electronic resources, and books for librarians and other professionals. Today, ABC-CLIO publishes under five well-respected imprints.

ABC-CLIO serves the history profession, history teachers, and students and scholars of history with a complete line of award-winning databases, books and eBooks, along with social studies reference and curriculum resources for middle and high school libraries and classrooms. Greenwood Press publishes high-quality, authoritative reference books and general-interest topics across the secondary and higher education curriculum. Praeger is widely regarded for scholarly and professional books in the social sciences and humanities, with emphasis in modern history, military studies, psychology, business, current events and social issues, international affairs, politics, visual and performing arts, and literature. Praeger Security International publishes insightful and timely material on international security, including defense and foreign policy, strategy, regional security, military history and terrorism. Libraries Unlimited/Linworth publishes professional materials for librarians, media specialists and teachers.

ABC-CLIO's corporate headquarters is located in Santa Barbara, Calif., with offices in Denver, Colo., and Oxford, England. For more information, visit the ABC-CLIO website at: www.abc-clio.com.

For more information, press only:
Laura Mullen, ABC-CLIO, 805-880-6836, lmullen@abc-clio.com
Lisa Wolfe, L. Wolfe Communications, 773-227-1049, lwolfe@lwolfe.com