Holy Infant kids win at History Day

Sara Brightman, Sean Flanagan and Kyle Nealon admit they don't have a lot of interest in history. But, that didn't keep the seventh graders from winning in the recent St. Louis region's History Day competitions.

Sara Brightman

Thirteen-year-old Sara won first place in the Junior Individual Exhibit competition in a field of 47. Her exhibit was: "America's Struggle: Surviving the Great Depression-1929-1941."

Thirteen-year-old Kyle Nealon and 12-year-old Sean Flanagan won over 28 other competitors in the Junior Group Documentary category. Their homemade video was titled: "Exploring the History of Video Gaming and the Exchanges and Effects Encountered by Youths."

The first, second and third place winners in the regional competition now qualify for the Missouri History Day. That will be held Saturday, April 17, in Columbia.

The principal at Holy Infant School in west St. Louis County is Sister Rosario Delaney. One of her ways to give kids an appreciation of history is to have all seventh graders produce a History Day project.

First, there is a school competition, with winners advancing to regionals. If they win there, they get the chance to go to the state competition. Winners there, advance to nationals in his countrywide History Day event.

For Sara, the historical period she picked started over 60 years before she was born in 1991. "But, I knew I had relatives who could give me impressions of the period," she said.

There were grandparents on her mother's side as well as a great aunt.

Kyle Nealon (left) and Sean Flanagan

Her display provided pictures and documents that outlined the unhappy national situation. It also included interviews with her relatives for a personal view of growing up in the Great Depression.

Sara said her grandparents and great-aunt grew up on a farm, so there was food, a place to work and a stable home situation.. "My grandmother said her parents tried to make life as normal as they could," Sara said.

"My great-grandfather even sold homemade wine to the WPA workers," she said. The WPA was a program where unemployed workers were given public-service jobs. Lots of WPA construction still can be seen in parks, highways and public buildings.

Kyle Nealon said he and Sean "like to play video games and we wanted to know some of the history of the games."

The idea of kids playing game machines dates back to the 1920s. But, they said they found the first electronic game, "Pong," came in the 1970s. The early games were put on cartridges in the mid-1970s, they said.

Kyle said one of his mother's friends had a collection of early game cartridges. "We got to see them but we couldn't play them. She didn't want them to break," Kyle said.

Sean and Kyle made their project more than a history of video games. They also decided to find out what doctors thought about the effects of the games on kids. Their documentary included an interview with Dr. Patricia Amato, a local pediatrician.

She told the boys that too much game playing and TV watching contributes to obesity in kids. Kyle said, "Even in rare cases, the bright lights of the games can bring on seizures in some kids sensitive to light."

U.S. doctors recommend kids view TV and play video games two hours a day--combined.

Also included in the boys' project was writing a script and then starring in their own video. That led to long hours recopying, redubbing and other difficult editing jobs to produce the 10-minute video.

Sean said, "We had to change the script pretty often." He and Kyle said the editing was the least fun part of the project. And Sean said, "We kept doing it right up to the end."

Now, they'll do more of it to polish the video for entry in the state competition.

The boys said they still don't have a strong interest in history even after their regional win.

But, Sean said their History Day advisor "offered to have us come back to do a project again next year." Mr. Robert Stevens is the seventh grade social study teacher and coordinator of the school's History Day program.

At Holy Infant, mandatory entry in the History Day program is focused on seventh grade. However, older kids are encouraged to enter again. The national History Day competition runs through high school.

Sean said, "It would be fun to do that again."