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National History Day Theme - Turning Points in History
🎙️ Welcome to "History Happens," the podcast that guides you through the fascinating world of the National History Day contest. Join your hosts, Craig and Lesley Mateer, as they embark on a journey to explore and conquer the 2023-2024 National History Day season. Get ready to dive into the theme of this season: Turning Points in History.
🏅 Celebrate the 50th anniversary of NHD with us and gear up for a thrilling ride. Tune in to our podcast as we unveil the captivating stories of individuals who have won gold medals at the NEH scholar competition.
🎉 Are you ready to learn, understand, and succeed in the National History Day contest? You're in for a treat as we delve into the essence of turning points. From defining what a turning point truly is to uncovering the impact it has on history, we're here to guide you every step of the way.
🌍 Join us as we explore the unexpected moments that altered the course of history. From civil rights movements to technological innovations, from political decisions to cultural revolutions, we'll leave no stone unturned in our pursuit of understanding the turning points that shape our world.
💡 Discover how a simple idea can morph into a turning point, transforming the way we live and think. We'll share stories of failures that led to unforeseen successes, proving that a single moment can change the trajectory of society forever.
🔍 Uncover hidden stories and untold perspectives that offer fresh insights into the concept of turning points. From political intrigue to scientific breakthroughs, we'll explore how these moments came about and examine the long-lasting effects they left in their wake.
📚 Dive into the three stages of turning points: the events leading up to the shift, the pivotal moment itself, and the profound impact that ripples through history. We'll guide you in researching these stages and crafting compelling narratives that highlight the significance of these turning points.
🌟 Whether you're a seasoned history buff or a newcomer eager to learn, our podcast will provide valuable insights and strategies to help you master the art of creating captivating and impactful National History Day projects.
✉️ Reach out to us at AskHistoryHappens@gmail.com with your thoughts, questions, and project ideas. We're here to support you on your journey through the captivating world of turning points in history.
🌐 Stay connected by visiting our website, HistoryHappens.org, where you can find additional resources and updates on upcoming episodes. Subscribe, rate, and review our podcast to stay engaged and keep the historical exploration alive.
🎊 Get ready to explore the turning points that have shaped the world we know today. Join us on "History Happens" as we uncover the past to understand the present and shape the future through the lens of history's most transformative moments.
Dr Gorn 0:00
And now for the NEH scholar, first place back to the first place gold medal
scholar for senior individual performance taking home the gold.
Craig 0:10
Welcome to history happens the podcast that helps you understand and succeed at the National History Day contest with your hosts, Craig and Lesley Mateer. Hello, and welcome to another episode of history happens. We're getting ready to kick off the 2023 2024 National History Day season with our first podcast of the season. Yes, and this season is turning points in history.
Lesley 0:42
It's the 50th anniversary of NHD. Let's go Let's go. You need a sound effect that says let's go turning points.
So today we're actually going to talk about the theme. As we do every year we kick off the season with a little lecture a little description, get your mind thinking about what the theme is actually looking for. How do you how do you find a topic within that theme? What are what are opportunities within that theme? To find the topic? Let's start. Let's start by defining what a turning point is, and how this theme might be different from some of the some of the themes in the past. Right? Sure. So Craig, when you think of a turning point, what do you think what what? Well, right off the
Craig 1:36
bat is like snapping your fingers. To me. It's, it's it's got to be quick. It's got to be something was happening, and then changed because of a turning point. So this wasn't a gradual evolution. Right, exactly. It's something that happened fairly quickly in time and changed however, the direction of of life as we knew it at the time. So it's got to be whether it's a an invention, or a civil rights or anything that came up that all of a sudden, what was before is now different.
Lesley 2:15
Yes, no, it can we say that it's not an evolution of something. It can take a while to reach that goal. But the turning point itself is when the goal is reached, when a purpose is achieved, or when the goal is totally squashed, never to be seen again. So there can be nefarious goals that people have in their plight to to do something nefarious, something bad. But if that is stopped, then that's the turning point. Right? It's something
Craig 2:48
something was trying to happen and finally got defeated. And it's not happening anymore. That can be a turning
Lesley 2:54
point as well. Yes. So a turning point is some some identifiable detail or moment that changes history. Having having just an interesting story isn't necessarily a turning point. An interesting story might be great for a different theme for a debate in diplomacy or for conflict and compromise or, or even even for great people in history. Those interesting stories may may be a better fit for for a different type of theme. But we're looking for an identifiable moment, an identifiable decision, an identifiable court ruling that changes things either for the better or worse.
Craig 3:43
Right. And again, the the the more narrow, the topic, the more definable, that turning point is I think it's better and makes the project is going to make the project cleaner and kind of easier to to focus on.
Lesley 4:00
Absolutely. So some things, some things to think about. Sometimes it's an immediate change. There may be a turning point that we don't even realize is the turning point until many many years later. So for instance, Cuban Missile Crisis, Wassily Arkhipov made one decision on one day that saved the world. But no one knew about that decision except for the Soviet Union very small inner circle and Soviet Union. Until no one knew about this until a Havana Cuba conference 40 years later. Looking back the people involved in that in that event in the Cuban Missile Crisis thought holy smokes, we were almost blown to smithereens Is that what happened when, when there's a nuclear war, is it smithereens? Okay, all right. So, yeah, so they said Holy smokes, so you might not even know what that immediate change is. Quite frankly.
Craig 5:01
So I was thinking about that today on the way here is like, there's probably 30 turning points going on right this second, we just don't know what they are yet. We don't know which of these amazing things that are happening in our world are going to end up affecting it 510 25 years from now, and some of them just may, you know, kind of fizzle out and not lead to much. And we're gonna get into, we have another podcast plan for picking your topic. And we'll get into historical perspective and, and and timeframe of when it is. And part of that is because we don't know today what those turning points are. And just like Miss Leslie was talking about,
Lesley 5:42
but it's happening somewhere on this planet today. A turning point happened yesterday, a turning point happened tomorrow historical turning point will happen. But that's going to be for our collection, our grandkids. Oh, right. Yeah. Because Because when it comes time for the 75th anniversary of NHD, there'll be looking at things that happen today. Because if you think about COVID, there were turning points in COVID. During that, that horrendous era, that our next generation will be able to look back as a turning point.
Craig 6:16
Look at us helping future NHD students, I mean, look at look at all the things we've been going through the last few years all in the name of helping a History Project somewhere down the road.
Unknown Speaker 6:28
Absolutely. Okay,
Lesley 6:30
let's get back to turning points. Craig, let's throw out some areas where a turning point can happen. So we're looking at an immediate change whether or not we know it was an immediate change. So remember, it's it's an immediate change as a result of something, it can be good or bad. Right? And we either we can either know about it right away, or maybe we will, we don't know about it until later. That's actually that's actually why NHD encourages students to choose topics that are at least 20 or 25 years ago, there's no exact time. But it has to be long enough ago so that we know what the impact is and what the change is. So a turning point, more than the turning points. Some objective was achieved, some invention was created, some invention failure was occurred. But the failure
Craig 7:29
led to something totally unexpected, something
Lesley 7:31
totally like like the guy who invented the glue on the sticky note. There was some failure at a point that created the glue use for sticky notes. And I think it's would be hard pressed to find somebody whose life wasn't affected by a sticky note. Right? Right. I'll tell a quick I'll tell a quick story. And the sticky note isn't necessarily you know, the turning point in my history but but my biological dad went missing the day before my first birthday. And I was raised by a by another gentleman that my mom married. And that's the gentleman I actually called dad, he raised me. He was very protective of our family. And for whatever reasons. We didn't learn about my biological dad who, who is still missing to this day, he was military at Elmendorf Air Force Base. Anyway, but many years later, the dad who raised me realized, maybe Maybe I was too Stern, Maybe I was too harsh, less ethical. I think it's okay for you to learn about your, your, your biological dad. And so. So I started looking into it. And this was some a biological dad went missing July 16 1966. And I started researching looking for trying to find anybody who knew my first dad. And that was in 2007, that I started doing that. And I got crazy or brave, or I don't know what you would call it, I he went to the Naval Academy graduated 1960s Super 16 Naval Academy. And so I just Googled Military Academy 1960 class in 1960. And this opportunity for me to join this military.com and connect with people in the class popped up and said, Would you like to send the class of 1960 and email and I was thought, oh,
Unknown Speaker 9:27
yikes. What am I doing? So
Lesley 9:29
I did? So I sent that the email. Hey, you know, I'm Leslie Lanzetta. My dad was Tony Lanzetta. Here's my story. Does anyone know my dad? And no one no one responded for for many days, I would say close to two weeks. But on the anniversary of the day when he when he went missing. I started getting flooded with emails. I knew your dad. He sat next to me and in class or, or he said, your dad tried out for the baseball team with me. I didn't know your dad. But hang on, Leslie, we're coming for you. We're going to, we're going to take care of you, we've got this. And so I'm getting all of these, I'm getting all of these emails, which is pretty overwhelming. But exciting was very emotional. But one day, my secretary comes to me and she hands me a sticky note. That's all we got this whole story started with a sticky note. It's still a good story. She hands me the sticky note. And he said, she said, call this man. He was the he was your dad's roommate at the Naval Academy. And your dad was the best man at his wedding. And so that was Mr. Larry and come to find out he actually lived in Florida, not too far from us. So that weekend, we loaded the kids up on a minivan and drove down to go see, Mr. Larry, it's really was
Craig 10:53
a turning point in our lives and our kids lives. Absolutely. And Mr. Larry's life, too, I'd like to know. So yeah,
Lesley 11:00
but there you go, there was a famous sticky note that that actually changed my life. Okay, so that was a failed invention. And
Craig 11:07
all these podcasts are gonna end up probably talking about things multiple times, and nothing, it's always good to hear, you know, multiple times to kind of help sick in but there are turning points in all sorts of things. It doesn't have to be, quote unquote, history. There's turning points in politics, there's turning points in sports, there's turning points in. In religion, there's turning points in culture, exactly.
Lesley 11:35
Where where a culture may be forced to change, for some reason, in the old traditions. What about changes in language? What about when, when a territory changes hands? Is it was it a colony, now it's independent. You know, one of one of our students did a just a beautiful paper on the separation of East Pakistan, in West Pakistan, that's huge. When the Bangladesh people can actually have their own identity.
Craig 12:06
And again, we'll talk about this more. But you know, sometimes you turn on the History Channel, there's actually history on
Lesley 12:12
as opposed to American Pickers alone, what does alone stop? I don't want to know anything about people being alone. Ah,
Craig 12:19
but the food that changed America, I mean, there's, there's things that we take for granted in in our eating daily lives that, you know, at some point didn't exist, or something happened, or somebody made a decision. And it became a huge turning point. So think of something you enjoy thinking about, and figure out a turning point,
Lesley 12:39
when does it start? And how did it how did you get there? How did it how did it come about? So Mr. Craig was was touching on this, but don't limit yourself to the obvious turning point. It doesn't necessarily have to be a piece of legislation or a decision during war time, you can think out of the box or turning points in every aspect of our lives. Yes, there were voting decisions. There are court cases, there are there are changes that happened because there was oppositional push back. So what what did what changes came about because there was a movement that pushed back, right? And when we think of civil rights, we think of suffragette movement, suffrage movements.
Craig 13:26
Yeah, but there's, there's something for everybody. There's something for everybody. There's multiple things for everybody. So so, you know, stretch, stretch your mind, think outside that box, like Miss Lindsay said, don't, don't think about the obvious. Think about the unique and think about something that that's important to you. And that really, that really helps drive your project for the whole year.
Lesley 13:51
Yep. Some of the and we'll talk about this when we do the topic selection, podcast, but a turning point in order for a great topic to match the theme of turning point the turning point has to change history. It's not enough just to be a great story. Turning Point has to change history. So think about a change that is caused by one decisive moment or a new idea or some action that someone did whether it's intentional or not. Then we talked about it can be an accident. Absolutely. Did someone spy was was a spy caught? Did
Craig 14:32
successful spy
Speaker 5 14:35
successful? We have we have our own favorite unsuccessful spy?
Lesley 14:41
Think about? Think about how it affected turning points that affected a community or a turning point that affected a country. What about a turning point that actually affected a group of people, whether it's children, whether it's the Elderly whether it's veterans, what Turning Point affected women what Turning Point affected Asians? Black America, what Turning Point affected the banks? What Turning Point affected public relations? Think about that one what turning points affected marketing for all you business minded people out there marketing? Don't assume marketing has always been around. Don't assume public relations. How about political spinmeisters
Craig 15:31
campaigning has not always been around. Right. Right. Used to be looked down on. So that change there was a turning point at one point where politician started campaigning. Yeah, yeah. Nice to go back to that.
Speaker 5 15:51
I had another idea. It just left my head with that one. Yes, it did.
Lesley 15:56
That is very funny. Think about also the first person who, but remember, just because they were first that were the first person who did blank, that doesn't make it a turning point. It what makes it a turning point is if it opened opportunities for other people. So the first person who did other people get to do things because of that, or did other people were they shut out of doing things because of that first person who? Because you know, they're always dingdong bad guys that kind of ruin it for the rest of us. So the first person who did something bad, stupid and kind of took away the freedom that other people have. So now we all have to be checked and double checked, or restricted or put on lockdowns or whatever. Because there was always a there is a first person who did something and kind of ruined it for the rest of us. Because the turning point sometimes sometimes I think it was my little brother.
Craig 16:58
Don't mention which one? No, I have
Speaker 5 17:01
little brothers, but when I'm one of them always made bad decisions. And then we couldn't go to Baskin Robbins. Nope. Everybody out of the station wagon. We're not going to Baskin Robbins.
Craig 17:11
So I don't want to get ahead of ourselves. But But obviously, theme is our first podcast because it makes sense. It's it's kicking it off. And that's what it's all about. And you have to find something that relates to the theme and and why we're driving at home is because it's very important that your topic meets the theme. Because you're going to lose, you're going to use the theme throughout your project. Why don't you talk a little bit about how theme ends up kind of permeating into everything.
Lesley 17:43
I will Craig I want to say something that's so obvious to us that I don't even know if we set it. But every year NHD chooses a theme and every student participating in this research project. Their topic has to align with the theme. And part of the the judging rubrics is that we have to clearly we the students, the the students have to clearly demonstrate how their topic relates to the theme. So that's so obvious to us, but for
rookie students and rookie teachers and rookie parents out there, we start with the
Craig 18:22
theme. Speaking of rookie students and parents and teachers out there. We'd love to hear from you. Yes, shoot us. Shoot us an email at Ask history happens@gmail.com That's asked history happens@gmail.com We obsess about this kind of stuff. So we'd love to hear from you so we can obsess about your stuff instead of of our stuff. So you know, give us a shout. What are you thinking about? What what topics interest in what what are you confused about? What are you confused about? What what do you understand about theme? What don't you understand about a theme? And hopefully you'll be riding this journey along with us all year? Oh, it'd
Lesley 18:58
be great. The more the merrier. What was I supposed to be talking about? I forgot
Craig 19:02
how does the theme permeate down the road into their project at almost every point.
Lesley 19:08
So the anatomy of an NHD project. Every project will have primary and secondary sources. every project, every project will have citations and annotations. Every project will have a thesis. Every project will have some type of visual medium to display it. Even if you write a paper, you choose the paper category. It's still a visual medium. And then every every topic. I'm sorry, yes, every every project will have a process paper. And for those of you who don't know, it is it's not supposed to be intimidating. It's 500 words of you answering six questions and you you tell the judges you kind of set the stage for your project and you get to brag about how you put your pride Magic together, how do you did your research and, and tell a great story on how you selected your, your topic. The other thing that every project the last element that every single project has is that they will have a judges interview, they get to brag about their stuff brag about they get to be the students get to be the expert and tell the judges how fantastic their project is, and, and explain how it relates to the theme. You get to do that, that verbally
Craig 20:28
and mythos is gonna go back and fill in the gaps there. But we we have noticed over the years that that judges interview is always petrifying to students, and we want to say it right here right now. Don't worry about that ride this journey with us. And we're going to help you to where you are nailing that judges in your absolute when it becomes the best part, as opposed to the thing you dread the most. But anyway, go back. And so theme, all those elements you talked about theme has to be incorporated in all,
Lesley 20:56
every single element that I list, you will pound out the theme, you will say things like turning point changes in history, and you can use synonyms, you don't always have to say Turning Point Turning Point Turning Point turning point. But you can use synonyms for turning point, which changed the way we think about blah, blah, blah, first time, the first time ever, which opened the door, which which changed the way we approach which changed the people who are accepted as
Craig 21:31
has continued to increase, you know, the percentage, etcetera, etcetera. So, so anyway, so that's why the theme becomes so important because you're going to use those, those ideas about the theme and the turning point to sprinkle into your project and reinforce your thesis. Again, we'll go into that, and what you're trying to show as to how this is an important turning point. And
Lesley 22:00
so the turning point will, you will discover the turning point in your research, you will include the turning point in your thesis, you will be able to analyze the your research, so that you can pinpoint the turning point and the and the impact that your turning point has had on society or a group of people or a location or site science or whatever, or whatever it affected, you will figure out how to work in the words Turning Point and synonyms on your visual medium. And you will have the word turning point in your annotations. You will you will use the word turning point in in your process paper and your project will the words turning point in their synonyms will jump off the project to the judges. And I will tell you turn to the Word turning point should be in your introduction somewhere should be in your thesis, it better be in your thesis, if you're a history happens, student, it's going to be in your thesis. And then it's going to be in your conclusion. And but those are the things that we that we
Craig 23:10
know. These are these are things you're going to learn on the journey with us. So hope you were already telling your story. I hope you subscribe and and and listen to it along the way. Before we go, and this, I think this fits in and I'm sure we'll cover it again as well. But every year and this year, especially with turning point in history, being the theme, we talk about the students need to basically be researching three different things. There was life before your turning point, something was going on something was happening, something
Lesley 23:46
was brewing, the atmosphere was ripe.
Craig 23:49
And then there was a turning point. And so obviously, you're going to be researching that turning point. And then that turning point causes an impact short and long term impact. And so you're going to be talking about and proving that it was a turning point by talking to us about the impact that it had causation the causation. So So think about that, that three piece part of it. As you're going through and thinking about what kind of turning point you may want to consider.
Lesley 24:21
So when you're thinking about turning points, something caused the turning point. And then number two is the turning point. And number three is what the turning point caused. So those are your three stages that you're actually looking at when you're trying to come up with a with a topic to use, use the theme. So remember, though, a turning point has to change history somehow. Just because somebody is the first person to do something or something is achieved doesn't necessarily mean it was a real turning point in history, just because somebody climbs to the top of a mountain that no one has ever climbed to before. Doesn't make it a turning point in history. For me, it was a fabulous achievement and the guy deserves a beer.
Craig 25:03
But if climbing to the top of that mountain allowed somebody to see the other side, and they realized there was an ocean there, and therefore they, they started traveling to that ocean and that ocean led to different trade, etc, etc. It made me a turning point, but it may not be. So that's what you that's what your research gets the gets to find out and prove to us. All right, well, again, thank you for joining us. Hope you'll you'll tune in and subscribe as we as we continue the to help you with the the NHD journey this year. Again, please reach out to us. Ask history happens@gmail.com That's ask history happens@gmail.com. We'd love to hear what you're doing, what you're planning, what your ideas are, what your questions are. Yep.
Lesley 25:46
And then if you go to our website, history happens.org There's a little place where you can put in your information. So you can be on our email list. So anytime we have a live stream going that you'll be you'll get notified with that. And any time. If we can send out notifications if we have more references, or or more sources or more places to find fantastic documents as we discover new things. We put it on the websites, we just want to keep you in the loop. All right.
Craig 26:15
And thanks again. Don't forget to subscribe, give us that five star review and you're working. I'm working and we'll we look forward to seeing you next time. See ya
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
