Students of the Lagrange Academy achieve the day of the history of the history and move to National – Lagrange Daily News

Two teams from the Lagrange Academy achieved victories for their National History Day Competition projects and won trips to Washington, DC

Stuart Greer, Bryan Lee and Raayan Ahmed won first place in the junior division of the regional competition for their project for the British invasion in Zulu Land in southern Africa. Kaylee McAllister and Ava Edelson received second place for their project on the Chinese exclusion Act.

In the National History Day competition, individuals or teams provide projects in one of four categories: documentation, exhibition, paper or performance. Both teams that continued from the Lagrange Academy decided to create documentary film videos for their projects.

Both teams were relatively new to filmmaking, but they learned a lot about history and video.

“This was the first time that we experimented with many things that are not often seen in other documentaries for this category,” said Greer. “We saw some of the previous national winners, and their content was good, but most of them were essentially slideshows. We wanted to do something else, so we decided to do 3D animations alongside photos and other small animations. We believe that it has really turned out.”

Lee said when they started, he knew nothing about 3D modeling or animation, but he learned quickly.

“I didn't know how to do anything about it. I just started learning a few months ago,” said Lee. “I think it helped me because I am very interested in such things. I think it was also very fun.”

For McAllister and Edelson, their focus was more on history than filmmaking, but they were also new.

“I and Ava didn't have any filmmakers at all. We just opened up,” said McAllister. “We were very concerned about the information than about the graphics.”

The entries were rated for the students, and McAllister said they knew that their teacher would probably think more about the information than they took care of the graphics.

“We made sure that our script was the best,” she said. “We took care of what it looked like, we simply concentrated more on this information than on the graphics.”

McAllister said she and her partner AVA had made her project on the Chinese exclusion law.

“When we dig deeper, we found out how really we were really disrespectful towards the Chinese immigrants and how we treated them incorrectly in different ways,” said McAllister. “They did a lot for America. We forced them to do work for which we were too lazy, and they helped a lot with the transcontinental railway. We continue to discriminate and assume that they transmit illnesses.”

“Ava and I only wanted to prove how we humans could not discriminate against them. They helped a lot with America and on the construction of America. They were a large part of the history of America, but we continued to worsen and terrible things about them and it simply formed for terrible assumptions,” said McAllister.

Greer, Lee and Ahmed made their documentary about the British invasion and colonization of the Zulu kingdom.

Greer said that the Zulu was a million people in southern Africa during the Anglo Zulu War.

“The British decided that they wanted to have more control over South Africa due to other European powers. So they sent an ultimatum to King Cetshwayo, the then King of Zulus, with impossible requirements such as their whole army,” said Greer. “He did not fully understood the complete content, so he sent offered, and these messengers were attacked, and their messages were not heard at all. Finally, the British declared war and fought them and won the British.”

Lee said that they wanted to concentrate on both sides when they selected their topic, but they quickly learned how bad the English actions were.

“We looked at both Zulu and British perspectives. When we did, I think that what the British did was very bad and how irresponsible their actions were,” said Lee. “We tried to concentrate on what the British did and how the Zulus was affected.”

“Even some high -ranking civil servants in Great Britain spoke badly about the British actions in Zulu Land because they didn't think it was right. I think even the British British government did not appreciate it, but they didn't do anything about it,” said Greer.

For the students, the next stage of the competition from June 8 to June 12 in Washington, DC, and is organized by the University of Maryland.