Student projects presented at National History Day

Fourteen-year-old Kendra Hemmerlein is a Nikola Tesla fan, so she decided to do a project about the famous inventor, physicist, engineer and futurist.

Hemmerlein was among 490 area junior and senior high school students who showcased presentations Friday during Southeast Missouri State University's "Exploration, Encounter Exchange in History" event in honor of National History Day. Categories included dramatic performance, web design, documentaries, paper presentations and exhibits.

"I realized (Tesla) had made lots of inventions, but I didn't know he did hundreds," she said.

Hemmerlein is a high school freshman in the Greenville R-2 district.

She'd always known Tesla and Thomas Edison competed heavily in their day, but the project also introduced her to the lesser known and distinctly eccentric aspects of Tesla's personality.

"There were rumors after he died that he fell in love with a pigeon," Hemmerlein said.

If those speculations are to be believed, the human-avian romance lasted about two years before Tesla's death in 1943.

Macey Bennett, another Greenville freshman, decided to title her project "America's Towboats on the Inland Waterways."

Bennett, 15, said she noticed several people wanted to do their projects on trains, so she decided to take a look at another form of transportation in America's history.

"I would say the No. 1 thing (I learned) would be how much (cargo) you can move with a tug," she said. "You can move a lot more than a train."

With interviews and other research, her project took about a month to put together, Bennett added.

Eric Clements, a history professor at Southeast who helped judge Friday's contest entries, said efforts like the two girls' not only showed a depth of research among the individuals and groups represented, but good visual presentation skills overall.

"I've been impressed this year," he said. "My section has been uniformly excellent."

Laurie Hamblin, a history instructor at Southeast who organized the annual contest, said entries were judged on their historical accuracy and how well they fit the exploration theme.

Winners will advance to a statewide competition in April at the University of Missouri in Columbia. Students who earn top awards there will serve as delegates at the Kenneth E. Behring National History Day Contest in College Park, Maryland in June, according to information from Southeast.

ljones@semissourian.com

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