Guidelines and Other Important Information
MAXIMUM DIMENSIONS FOR HISTORY FAIR EXHIBITS
72 INCHES TALL
40 INCHES WIDE
30 INCHES DEPTH
Overview on what is being graded:
 Research Check-Ins (including Thesis Statement/Topic
Summary Handout)
 Research Paper
 Exhibit
 Presentation
Research Paper Checklist
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Does my paper have a cover page with my name, teacher, class, date,
word count, and title on it?
Does my paper fit in within the word limit expectations?
o 4th- 900-1500
o 5th- 1000-2000
o 6th- 1500-2500
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Is my paper properly formatted? Is it double –spaced, types, Times New
Roman font, and size 12?
Does my paper include a clear thesis at the end of the introduction?
Does my thesis include evidence/significant of my topic?
Did I use at least five sources in my essay?
Do all my paragraphs have citations (in-text?)
Does my paper include specific evidence and/or quotes?
Did I check for grammar and spelling?
Does my paper prove my thesis?
Exhibit Checklist (you can use several parts of your research paper
for your exhibit, such as your thesis statement, introduction and
conclusion paragraphs, and evidence.
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Does my board have a large title?
Does my title include the theme?
Does my board have sections with subtitles?
Do my subtitles connect with the theme?
Is there a paragraph of my own writing for each subtitle?
Do my paragraphs tell the WHOLE STORY of my topic so that it makes
sense?
Do my paragraphs repeatedly connect to my topic to the theme?
Does my introduction include a clear a clear thesis?
Does my conclusion summarize the significant of my topic?
Did I spell check multiple times?
Is my board organized?
Does my board have several visuals for each section?
o 4th Grade: at least 10 sources are needed on your board
o 5th Grade: at least 12 sources are needed on your board
o 6th Grade: at least 15 sources are needed on your board
Is my board visually attractive?
Does my board fit the size requirements?
Is my board freestanding?
Does my board prove my thesis?
How does this History Fair Align with the Common Core Standards?
Step 1
Students will conduct preliminary research that uses multiple sources to develop
an open-ended, specific, historical question and that allows for avenues of
exploration. (Common Core Standards RI.2, RH.2, W.7)
Step 2
Students will research using a wide variety of sources. Students will conduct
research on the internet, in libraries, museums, archives, and in oral history
interviews. Common Core Standards: RI. 2,3,6, RH.2,3,6, W.7)
Step 3
Students will analyze and use appropriate primary sources to develop their own
ideas. Students will use secondary sources to find the context and to understand
the ways that historians and others have interpreted the subject. (Common Core
Standards: RI. 2,3,6,8,9, RH. 1,2,3,6,8,9, W.9)
Step 4
Students will integrate information from diverse primary and secondary sources
and develop a historical argument or thesis that shows cause-and-effect, change
over time, long- and short-term impact, and historical significance. (Common
Core Standards: RI.8,9, RL.7, W.1,2,4)
Step 5
Students will construct three to five interpretative claims and identify supporting
evidence that develop the ideas raised in the thesis. (Common Core Standards:
RI.1,2,3, RH.1,2,3, W.1,2,4,5)
Step 6
Students will use citations and create an annotated bibliography. (Common Core
Standards: W.8)
Step 7
Students will communicate historical interpretations through a History Fair project
that clearly expresses a conclusion, uses technology to present a thesis that is
supported by evidence, matches the visual and verbal message and evidence,
and reaches the audience with a compelling and convincing story of the past.
(Common Core Standards: RI, 1,2,3,7,9, RH. 1,2,3,7,9, W.1,2,4,5,6)
2015 History Fair Topic Ideas:
Laws, Courts, and Legislation
Struggles for voting rights
Women’s Suffrage
Claiming Land Rights: Potawatomi, Pokagan in Federal Court
Equal Rights
Fugitive Slave Act in Illinois
Black Codes in Illinois
Environmental/Landmarks/Animals
Environmental Justice and Altgeld Gardens
Mary McDowell and Environmental Rights in the Back of the Yards
Make and Preserving Landmarks
Reversal of the River
Annexation to Chicago
Animal Rights
Cynthia Bathurst
Science/Medicines
AMA Fight Against National Health Care
Mary Thompson, Sarah Hackett Stevenson and other Early Female
doctors/Researches
Nurses Training Schools at Provident Hospital
Food and Drug Safety
Leon Cass and Bioethics /James Cronin
Yoichiro Nambu
Consumerism
Consumer Rights
Contract Buyers League: The Scam or The Dream
Consumer Boycotts
A&P grocery stores change food-buying
Latino Issues
Chicano Student Movements
Deportation in 50s- Refugio Martinez
Latino Power Movement- Raza on Campus
Bilingual education
MALDEF
FALN
George Leighton and the FALN
The Division Street Riot
1968 Bilingual Education Act
Politics
Elizabeth Dilling: Anti-Communist and Anti-Semitic
Shakman Decree
Roosevelet Second Bill of Rights (The Chicago Story)
1986 Democratic National Convention
Thorstein Veblen and Economics
Milton Friedman
Civil Rights
Chinese Equal Rights League
The Interracial Struggle to Integrate the YMCA
Seeding Redress- Japanese Relocation
Robert Abbott
Immigration Protection League
John W.E. Thomas and 1875 Civil Rights Act of Illinois
Black Abolitionists in Chicago
Trail of tears
Underground RR
Desegregating summer camps
Fred Hampton
Elijah Lovejoy
Rights of Prisoners
Pearl Hart
Disability Rights
Sports
Desegregation of sports teams
1982/1987 NFL Player’s Strike
City Planning
Mildred Mead and Urban Renewal
Trumbull Park
Public Housing
Don DePorter
Right to public housing integration Woods, Robert Taylor
Gentrification of Lincoln Park
No More Ghettos The Revolutionary Gautreaux Case
Migrant Workers in Chicago
Tenant Rights