Office of Borough President James P. Molinaro
Staten Island, New York
B.P. Molinaro announces “Staten Island History Day Fair”
Contest open to fourth graders at Island public, private, and parochial schools
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. – Borough President James P. Molinaro hosted a press conference today to announce the first annual “Staten Island History Day Fair.” The Fair is being coordinated by Borough Historian Thomas Matteo, with assistance from the New York Public Library.
In its inaugural year, the Fair will be open to fourth grade students from Staten Island’s public, private, and parochial schools. The Fair is designed to support the Social Studies curriculum of fourth-graders, which focuses on local history. Students are encouraged, either individually, in small groups, or as a class, to prepare a project describing a person, event, or significant place in Staten Island History. Projects can be done in various media, including written, video, photographic, audio or web-based, and will be judged on presentation, content, and the student’s ability to answer questions presented to them by the judges in reference to their project. Individual schools are encouraged to hold their own fairs early in 2009, as school-wide winners must be selected by March 2. A complete overview of the History Day Fair, including project criteria and an application form is available at: http://www.homeworknyc.org/teachers/statenIslandhistorydayfairrules.pdf
First place winners in both the individual and class/group divisions will have their projects featured on the Borough Historian’s website: http://www.statenislandhistorian.com
In addition, all school-level winners have been invited by the New York Public Library to exhibit their projects on a website currently under development: http://www.OurHistoryNYC.org.
The Borough President was joined by Borough Historian Thomas Matteo, as well as representatives from the New York Public Library, The Department of Education, our Island’s schools, and many of our Borough’s cultural and historical institutions.
December 16, 2008