Two Tallahassee 6th graders turned a history project into a top state finisher, and now they’re headed to a national competition in Maryland.
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Tallahassee middle schoolers win state history competition, headed to nationals in Maryland
Maximus Brown and Wyatt Simpson, both students at Cornerstone Learning Community, won first place at the National History Day state competition with an exhibit focused on investigative journalist Jacob Riis. The win earned them a spot at the national competition.
“I really enjoy history as it shows the building blocks that led up to today,” Maximus said.
The Nation’s Report Card shows U.S. history scores for 8th graders have been on a decline since 2014. But for Maximus and Wyatt, history is an opportunity to tell a story with real-world impact.
Their exhibit centered on Riis and his work to expose living conditions in tenements and police lodging houses.
“[Riis] was an investigative journalist in the early and late 1800s,” Wyatt said.
“The reason why he started investigating on the tenements and police lodging houses was because he was affected by one,” Maximus said.
The two students competed against tens of thousands of participants before earning first place at the state level.
Local educators say engaging young people with history is getting increasingly difficult. Sarah Marquez, Wyatt’s mother and a teacher at Leon High School, says outside pressures are making that harder.
“I think that it has become harder and harder to reach students a lot, and it’s because of technology and stuff like that. Now, some of the legislation that has been put in place limits what teachers are able to teach in history classes, and I think that sometimes that limits what teachers are able to talk about,” Marquez said.
Wyatt and Maximus spent months researching primary sources, building their exhibit, and preparing for competition. They also worked with high school history teachers throughout the process.
“Well, I’ve always been intrigued by history. I love learning about why certain things happen and what led up to it. I love asking why, and learning history gives me certain background information so that I don’t have to ask those whys as much,” Wyatt said.
Their parents say they are proud of the work their sons put in. Lynnsy Brown, Maximus’s mother, says she was struck by how deeply the boys understood their subject.
“Hearing them as they were preparing for their interview, that’s what I think, that’s what really blew me away. They were just like spot on. You can tell they really did the research themselves. They knew it, and most importantly, they understood what they learned. So to me, that was just remarkable,” Brown said.
Wyatt and Maximus are now fundraising to cover the cost of their trip to Maryland for the national competition. You can support their trip to Maryland here.
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