Resources to Guide Teachers
National History Day’s high-quality classroom resources, professional development opportunities, and guidance are here to support your efforts to teach research skills and advise NHD students.
Project Examples
Get inspired by NHD projects submitted in previous years’ contests. Visit to browse exhibit, website, paper and performance examples.
Contest Process
NHD projects begin at your school, whether public, private, parochial, charter, or homeschool. From there, your project might be selected to advance to either a regional or affiliate (state, territory, or country) contest.
At an NHD contest, students present their work to judges, who give all students feedback on their work and select projects to advance to the next level of the competition. Between contest levels, students are encouraged to revise their project based on what they have learned and the judges’ feedback.
- Student Chooses Topic
- Begin Research
- Select Contest Category
- Write Process Paper and Annotated Bibliography
I’m a New NHD Teacher!
Watch this video series focused on teachers who are new to National History Day.
2027 THEME
Innovation in History: Impact, Influence, Change
Innovation goes beyond creating new tools or devices to finding new ways of thinking, organizing, and influencing society. To put it simply, innovation, at its core, is about change and the impact of that change.