Contest Rules
The Vista Heights Middle School and MVUSD History Day contests use the Riverside County History Day rule book for all contest rules with the following addition. Please see the Riverside County History Day rule book for specific information about the rules.
2021 RCOE History Day Rulebook.pdf
NOTE: The rule book is subject to change during the 2020-21 school year to reflect necessary updates for the virtual competition.
Additional MVUSD Specific Rule: Entries in Languages Other Than English
At all levels of the National History Day, contest rules require projects to be submitted in English. The MVUSD District-level contest has created the following exception to these general rules.
- The Moreno Valley Unified School District will accept projects in either English or Spanish for the district level competition. Projects in any other languages will not be accepted.
- Entries must follow all rules and guidelines in the Riverside County History Day rule book. This would include, for example, having a title page, process paper, and annotated bibliography included with the project.
- Schools with Spanish language entries must send at least one judge per category who is fluent in both English and Spanish to help evaluate the projects. For example, if a school sends individual exhibits and group exhibits, they would be required to send 2 judges.
- Spanish language projects will be judged separately in a Spanish language competition. Spanish language entries will have their own set of awards. As a general rule, they will not be eligible to advance to the Riverside County History Day competition.
- If a determination is made that any winning Spanish language entry is rated significantly higher than its English language counterpart according to the judging rubrics, the district coordinators will consider selecting the project as a standard competition winner, eligible to advance to the Riverside County competition. These Spanish language projects can only advance to the Riverside County History Day competition with the stipulation that they must be translated into English by the competing students in order to compete at any higher levels of competition. The decision regarding this exception to the general rule is at the discretion of the district coordinators, whose decision is final and not subject to appeal.
About National History Day
National History Day (NHD) is a year-long educational program in which students in grades 4-12 become historians.
After selecting a historical topic that relates to an annual theme, students conduct extensive research by using libraries, archives, museums, and oral history interviews. They analyze and interpret their findings, draw conclusions about the significance of their topics in history, and create final projects to present their work. These projects can be used at the school site for rich project-based learning experiences and/or entered into a series of competitions from the local to the national level, where they are evaluated by professional historians and educators.
Within Riverside County, the competition begins at the school level, with winners advancing to a district competition, then to the county level. Riverside County winners advance to the NHD-CA State Competition and state winners then advance to the national competition held in June each year.
2020-21 Vista Heights Middle School History Day Virtual Contest
The contest will be held in a virtual environment this year. There will be no day-of, in-person contest in any form. Judging will take place from January 22-15, 2021.
The VHMS History Day awards will be announced on Friday, January 15, 2021 from 6-7pm.