Alan Llavore | Office of Marketing and Communications | (909) 537-5007 | allavore@csusb.edu
The annual San Bernardino County History Day Competition may be months away, but for about 90 middle school students from various school districts, the research is well underway for the event that is part of National History Day.
For the second year, Cal State San Bernardino’s John M. Pfau Library hosted the students for a day-long program during which they were introduced to the resources available at the university library. They also met with staff librarians and history majors who shared with them skills with which to conduct the research for their projects.
The San Bernardino County History Discovery Day on Nov. 14 was organized by Rebecca Lubas, dean of the CSUSB Libraries; Michelle Lorimer, assistant professor of history; and Fermín Jaramillo, coordinator from San Bernardino County Superintendent of Schools Department of Leadership and Outreach.
The middle school students, along with elementary school and high school students, will present their projects at the 36th annual San Bernardino County History Day Competition, set for March 7 at CSUSB. The theme this year is “Revolution, Reaction and Reform in History.”
“We had such wonderful feedback from last year that we asked if we could do this again,” Jaramillo said. “The university was gracious enough to say yes.”
Lubas said one of the lessons learned from last year’s program was to give them more time with the university librarians “because that’s the real treasure.” The librarians assisted the students by showing them how to use the library’s resources – and that helps to dispel the idea that libraries are just for college students and their professors.
“We want libraries to be welcoming and approachable,” Lubas said. “So this is an introduction to an academic library for these middle school kids in our county. It’s just such a valuable opportunity. And we're so glad to be able to have them have the access to these wonderful faculty librarians that we have that are experts in their areas, and having a real college-level research experience as part of National History Day.”
The young students learned, just as their college-age counterparts, that “history is interpreted and created through taking different sources together and understanding things from many perspectives,” Lorimer said. “So that's what the students are doing in their research and through these projects. They're not just taking one way of understanding. They have to incorporate all kinds of different sources, do original research. Some of the students here are looking at trial documents from the 1600s as a part of their research for their projects. So they're digging deeply. They're learning how to do historical research, and they're doing the work that actually our CSUSB students do. So, it's pretty phenomenal.”
That helps the students develop their projects for the history day competition, which range from documentaries, performances, websites, and podcasts, along with the traditional exhibits and historical papers.
And the skills learned – how to read and understand sources, what needs to be examined further, what evidence can be used to support an argument, how does evidence influence what they should or should not believe – are not just limited to the classroom. It extends to what they see on social media, such as TikTok, or news reports they come across as they do their research.
Jaramillo said CSUSB, which two of his sons attended, is a valuable resource for the community. By hosting the students on campus, they get to see firsthand what college is like. And it exposes them to the idea that college is a viable option for them.
Added Lorimer, “I think another important part of it is to get students at this age, sixth graders, to come to campus and think about this as an option years before they're even putting together applications.”
It also shows them that “college is fun, and that research is fun,” Lubas said. “Research is exciting, unlocking the collections we have in the libraries that's available to them. As I mentioned in my introductory remarks, we are open to the public, to the taxpayers of California, so they're welcome to come back with their parents and use our library for other projects, not just for History Day.”
As the middle school students got in line to take photos with Cody Coyote, CSUSB’s mascot, Lubas said, “I hope the kids have a lot of fun. And I hope that they learn today that we're happy to see them – and that we're happy to see them again and again. And maybe five to six years from now, we want to see them for sure.”