Two kids at Holy Infant Catholic School uncovered some
unique primary research sources while developing their winning
entries in the 2010 Region 5 History Day competitions.
Connor
Slattery |
Thirteen-year-old Connor Slattery used his 101-year-old
great grandfather to illustrate advances that have been
made in harvesting farm crops. His entry, "The Combine,"
won first place in the Junior Individual Documentary division.
Thirteen-year-old Patrick Rogers was able to talk with
one of the crew members of the World War II bombing raid
against Japan. The sortie involved launching B-25 bombers
off an aircraft carrier's deck while at sea. His "Jimmy
Doolittle's Raid" entry won first place in the Junior Web
Site category.
Patrick
Rogers |
Students from Holy Infant Catholic School won first in
four of the nine categories in the Region 5 competition.
All regional winners will compete April 10 at the University
of Missouri-Columbia in the Missouri state championships.
The other Holy Infant first place winners were a three-member
team in the Junior Group Performance division and a girl
student who was first in the Junior Special Prize in Women's
History.
(For a complete list of the Region 5 History Day awards
in both the junior and senior high divisions, click
here.)
The theme of the Missouri History Day competitions was
"Innovations in History."
The winning entry for the Junior Group Performance was
titled, "The Battle of the Coral Sea." This historic World
War II battle involved two navies where, for the first time,
the two commanders never had visual sight of each other.
Mitchell
Henning |
Holy Infant students in that winning entry were Maddie
Thompson, Connor Schumacher and Mitch Henning.
Holy Infant's fifth category winner was Allison Spalding
whose project was titled "Elizabeth Blackwell." It told
the story of the first woman to graduate from medical school
who was also a pioneer in pressing for medical education
for woman.
Members of Connor Slattery's family were farmers in Illinois.
Therefore, he was attracted to the idea of a history project
that talked about the innovations in harvesting crops.
He opened his documentary film by showing his great grandfather
harvesting corn with the use of a special hook on his hand
to break the corn ear from the stalk. The film ended with
pictures of huge combines which picked and shelled several
rows of corn in one sweep across a field.
Connor said writing the essay which accompanied the documentary
film was the most difficult part of the entry. He said he
used a video camera which could shoot a scene in motion
as well as take still pictures. Connor said he primary extra-curricular
activities were soccer, basketball, baseball and track.
He said he was best at track where his favorite races were
the 800 meters and mile runs.
Patrick Rogers did a lot of his interviewing by e-mail
and phone because his primary sources lived in other parts
of the country.
He started with interviews of Jonna P. Hoppes, who was
a grand-daughter of General Doolittle, and her father, a
son of Doolittle. They both lived in California.
Ms. Hoppes put him in contact with one of the living survivors
of the Doolittle raid, a navigator on one of the planes
who now lives in Ohio.
He told Patrick that there were 16 B-25 bombers in the
raid and all were launched from a single aircraft carrier.
"The navigator said there wasn't much flight deck space
for the first plane to launch," Patrick said.
What made the launches even more difficult was that the
World War II aircraft carrier didn't have any steam catapults
which aid launching of airplanes today. They had to generate
all the takeoff speed with their own engines, he said.
Another hazard of the mission was that the B-25 bombers
didn't have enough fuel to return to the ship even if they
could find enough landing space.
The crews knew they had to overfly Japan and then land
in China, where they didn't know what sort of reception
they'd get from the native people.
Patrick said he played volleyball and basketball and also
played the piano and trumpet.
Connor
Schumacher |
Madeleine Thompson, Mitchell Henning and Connor Schumacher
not only researched and wrote their entry on the Battle
of the Coral Sea. They also were the actors in the performance
before a panel of judges.
Connor played the fleet commander while Mitchell was a
navy ensign and Madeleine was a sailor. For her role, Madeleine
dressed as a male sailor because there were no women serving
on ships during World War II.
There were women in the navy but the WAVES served in shore
positions and didn't take part in any battles.
Madeleine was also the narrator for the trio in their
stage performance.
She said the play was focused on the final days of the
long-distance sea battle.
She and Connor said writing the script was the toughest
part of the history project.
But, Mitchell said the writing of the supporting essay
was the toughest for him. "It was hard to get all the words
right," he said. He was the primary writer for the essay.
All three of the team members said they took part in sports
as their primary extra-curricular activities. Madeleine
and Mitchell said they both participate in soccer and basketball,
while Connor's sports were basketball and baseball.
Region 5 History Day winners
Here are the winners of the Missouri History Day's
junior categories for Region 5:
Junior Paper
1st place, Ruby Parks, "Antibiotics: From Mold
to Miracle Drug," Sperreng Middle School, Teacher-Laurice
Badino.
Junior Individual Exhibit
1st place, Paul Hendrickson, "Science Fiction
in the Operating Room," St. Margaret of Scotland
School, Teacher-Juliann Hesed.
Junior Group Exhibit
1st place, Jack Perryman, Nick Bentz, "Frank Lloyd
Wright: Adapting Architecture for the Future,"
St. Raphael the Archangel School, Teacher: Christy
Connor.
Junior Individual Performance
1st place, Veronica White, "Crash Test Dummies,"
St. Margaret of Scotland School, Teacher: Juliann
Hesed.
Junior Group Performance
1st place, Maddie Thompson, Connor Schumacher,
Mitch Henning, "The Battle of the Coral Sea," Holy
Infant School, Teacher: Bob Stevens.
Junior Individual Documentary
1st place, Connor Slattery, "The Combine,"
Holy Infant School, Teacher: Bob Stevens.
Junior Group Documentary
1st place, Barbara Graf, Melissa Crombie, "The
Fair Labor Standards Act," Bernard Middle School,
Teacher: Susan Jesse.
Junior Web Site
1st place, Patrick Rogers, "Jimmy Doolittle's
Raid," Holy Infant School, Teacher: Bob Stevens.
American Association of University Women Junior
Special Prize in Women's History
1st place, Allison Spalding, "Elizabeth Blackwell,"
Holy Infant School, Teacher: Bob Stevens.
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