National History Bee

[Eric Huff]

While many are already aware of it, we would like to take a moment and introduce the quizbowl community to the second annual National History Bee: Elementary and Middle School Division! Information about exactly how the competition works can be found at our website: http://www.historybee.com

We have been in the process of spreading the message of The National History Bee as far and wide as possible over the past few months. We have mailed information to virtually every public and private middle school in America, and have also been directly contacting homeschool associations. We believe these are two groups that can greatly benefit from, and are greatly underrepresented in, buzzer-based academic competition today. Like with any facet of NHBB, we believe, as many do, that the positive experience students have in our competitions can be a natural causeway to the quizbowl community that exists on these message boards. Thousands of students will be participating in buzzer-based academic competition for the first time this year as a result of this competition.

We are excited both about the prospects of this year’s competition but also the resulting growth in mainstream quizbowl for years to come. We hope that high school and middle school coaches alike will encourage their school districts’ schools to participate in the National History Bee in support of these aims.

Additionally, the National History Bee is always open to the help and support of the quizbowl community. If you are interested in writing questions for the National History Bee, please email [email protected] for more information. We are also in need of staff for the National History Bee Regional Finals which are held from February to April across the United States. With regards to staffing we believe that active members of the quizbowl circuit are not only highly qualified but also have a personal understanding of the value and importance of academic competition. If you would like more information about what is involved and how you can help, please contact us at [email protected].

Elementary and middle school teams can also compete in The National History Bowl this year. NHBB Executive Director, David Madden, is handling those arrangements, and he will post more information shortly regarding how that will work.