National History Day 2013

Checklist for Exhibits

Rules and Guidelines _____1. It meets size requirements: no more than 40 inches wide, 30 inches deep, and 6 feet high. You are strongly encourages to use ALL available space. _____2. It contains at or less than 500 student-composed words. This includes the text you write for titles, subtitles, captions, graphs, timelines, media devices (e.g., video, slides, computer files), or supplemental materials (e.g., photo albums, scrapbooks, etc.) where you use your own words. Brief citations crediting the sources of illustrations or quotations included on the exhibit do not count toward the 500-word limit. _____3. Any media devices included are less than 3 minutes and can be controlled by judges. Historical Quality _____1. My topics fits the theme Turning Points: People, Place, and Events. _____2. My topic has historical significance. _____4. My exhibit answers the So What? question. Why is this important? _____5. I have checked all my information for accuracy. _____6. I have a thesis for my exhibit. (This is a statement not a question) _____7. My exhibit supports my thesis statement. _____8. I have completed my Summary Statement form. Exhibit Quality _____1. My exhibit clearly shows my analysis and interpretation without having to explain further. _____2. My labels and caption are clearly related to the information to which they are attached. _____3. My picture, captions, labels, maps, and charts are all organized to maximize visual impact. _____4. I have organized my information by sequence or theme to help support my thesis there are different time periods or stages of my information. _____5. My title is clearly displayed and readily found. The thesis is clear. _____6. I have solicited outside opinions to verify that the exhibit has a visual impact. _____7. All student-generated work is computer generated and follows the font guidelines. _____8. My exhibit colors are significant or are complementary.

Proofreading/Editing _____1. I had at least 3 people proofread my labels, captions, and process paper. _____2. My process paper is less than 500 words. _____3. I ran spell-check and looked for error and that spell-check did not catch. _____4. My words and phrases are clear. Bibliography _____1. My bibliography is separated into primary and secondary sources. _____2. There are at least 5 primary and 5 secondary sources. _____3. Each source has at least 3 sentence annotation _____4. My most important sources contain annotations that describe how they influenced my project. _____5. All of my bibliographical entries have a hanging indent. _____6. My bibliography has consistent formatting - font, same size, margins, and tabs have been correctly used. _____7. All bibliographic entries are in correct MLA format. I verified this using _________________________