Teachers will have students complete posters and will then hold class or school contests. Teachers should select their top two posters and announce them to NHD MT by May 1, 2025. NHD will then work with teachers so that winning posters can be exhibited at local cultural institutions around the state during the summer. Finally, winning posters will be exhibited at the annual Montana History Conference at the end of September 2025, when a grand champion will be selected.

Completing a poster allows students to pursue topics in Montana history that interest them, learn how to write thesis statements and support claims with evidence, and then demonstrate their topic’s significance in history.

Students accomplish this by investigating primary sources of various formats (e.g. photos, interviews, newspaper articles, maps, quotations, etc.) and secondary sources. Ultimately, when students construct their final posters, they should incorporate their evidence into their own words, using meaningful quotations and other primary source text to support their thesis statement. For more information, complete the teacher interest form.

Want to see samples? Visit the poster gallery created by our friends at Colorado History Day.

Note: Elementary posters do not compete at the in-person National History Day contests for grades 6-12.