National History Day (NHD) is a highly regarded academic program for elementary and secondary school students.
Each year, more than half a million students, encouraged by thousands of teachers nationwide participate in the NHD contest. Students choose historical topics related to a theme and conduct extensive primary and secondary research through libraries, archives, museums, oral history interviews and historic sites. After analyzing and interpreting their sources and drawing conclusions about their topics’ significance in history, students present their work in original papers, websites, exhibits, performances and documentaries. These products are entered into competitions in the spring at local, state and national levels where they are evaluated by professional historians and educators.
This year the United States War Dogs Association, Inc. was contacted by a teacher who had two young students Kyle and Skip who are both in the 6th. grade, who attend Northfield Middle School, Northfield Minnesota.
This year, the theme was Innovation in History: Impact and Change. These two students were creating a documentary on War Dogs. They were using the innovative idea of “Dogs for Defense” in WWII and how use of dogs in war has impacted the war effort and changed through the years.
Kyle and Skip interviewed their 4th grade teacher’s father-in-law who was a pilot and transported dogs during WWII. They also e-mail interview a dog handler in Iraq. They also gathered some amazing research and competed at the regional level with their documentary on March 18, 2010. Kyle and Skip advanced to the state level on May 1, 2010 and placed in the top 8 in the state.
As president of the United States War Dogs Association I would like to say thank you to Kyle and Skip for doing an outstanding job on this wonderful project. They did Honor to our Military Working Dogs and their Handlers. Past, Present and Future.
SEMPER FI
Ron Aiello
Now sit back and enjoy this wonderful documentary by Kyle and Skip.
