By staff writer Zelinda Strell

For more than four months, Bay Farm middle schoolers worked extremely hard on a project called National History Day. In March, about 20 of them, representing 12 projects, competed against middle schoolers around Alameda County at the Oakland Museum of California.

Seventh grader Jay Bond placed as an alternate to go to the state competition. That means if one of the projects in first or second place (held by students from other schools) can’t make it to the next competition, Bond will compete.

See the slideshow below. The BFMS students who won the Bay Farm competition were as follows:

Individual Exhibits:

• Samantha Gable:  “Emperor Titus of Rome:  Short Reign, Lasting Legacy”
• Duncan Williams:  “Leonardo daVinci:  Hidden Genius”

Group Exhibits:

• Albert Le, Justin Wong, Quinn Dooley:  “Buddha”
• Anna Leong, Jamie Pak: “Hatshepsut”

Individual Documentaries:

• Jay Bond:  “Saladin”
• Yasmine Zahid:  “Theodora”

Group Documentaries:

• Rowan Esquer, Emily Rutherford:  “Evolution of the Camera”
• Danny Ross, Lukas Schneider:  “The Legacy of Pericles”

Individual Websites:

• Irvin Nezami:  “Hammurabi”
• Kyra Kong:  “William Shakespeare:  The Man, His Works, and The Legend”

Group Websites:

• Ethan Muon, Bryan Chai, Ryan Ong:  “Frederick Douglas and His Acts of Abolition”
• Kyle Wonzen, Peter Brady:  “William Shakespeare:  The Life, The Legacy”

Sixth-, seventh and eighth graders all had to choose great leaders in history and prove their legacy with their projects. Students could either choose to make a documentary, a website, or a project board either as a group or as individuals.

Once all the projects were completed, judges came to Bay Farm to judge the projects. Not only did students work hard on their NHD projects, but the teachers at BFMS also worked extremely hard. Seventh-grade teacher Nancy Ely brought the idea of NHD to Bay Farm, and she worked very hard to help it happen at the school. Media Center Teacher Roxanne Clement also was there to help students with their annotated bibliographies, and all middle school teachers assisted their students in editing and providing feedback.

All the BFMS projects will go on display on March 30 at the Alameda Library’s main branch, at Bay Farm’s A Journey Through Time exhibition through May 30. A reception open to Bay Farm students and their families — and the public — will happen from 6-8 p.m. on Wednesday, April 1.

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