Student Websites

Explore Local History

The websites below were created by teams of teachers and students from Kindergarten through high school. Local history projects featured prominently in an early Emerging America Teaching American History grant.

• Find resources to support development of your own Local History Projects. 
• Find resources to develop Inclusive Civic Education Projects. 

Contact us for further guidance on civic engagement projects and information on how you can incorporate website-creation. Let us know if we can add your student-created local history website to this page of examples. 

Student Websites

Ludlow Public Schools, Paul R. Baird Middle School - Ludlow: From Small Village to Industrial Town 

Granby Public Schools, West Street School - Granby Then and Now

"We Just Really Don't Learn About this Stuff in School" - Needham High School researchers reflect on disability history, past and present. Interview of Needham High School high school researchers by Alex Green for his (Un)Hidden video blog. Research on Willowbrook School in New York for 2026 National History Day video project. The students' video plays at the end of the interview. (28:07 minutes - interview + student video). 

National History Day, Senior Individual Website: Kathleen Godfrey, Arden, North Carolina - "You Can’t": The Rights and Responsibilities of Neurodivergent Children 

National History Day, Junior Group Website: Alexandra Lay, Harry Liu and Spencer Carman, Arlington, Massachusetts - PARC v. Pennsylvania: Pioneering the Right to Education for Children with Cognitive Impairments

Housatonic Valley Regional H.S. & Western Connecticut State University - ProjeCT29: Using Local History to Engage Students

Mercer University - Student Leadership Johns Creek - Same Storm, Different Boats - Documenting the Living History of the Covid-19 Pandemic

National Archives - 20sStreets Local History Project 

Past Emerging America Windows on History Projects

• Amherst Public Schools, Wildwood Elementary: Shays Rebellion
• Belchertown High School, The Bridgmans of Belchertown
• Caldwell Alternative School, Leominster Treasures: An Unsolved Mystery with a Historical Context
• Deerfield Elementary School: A Day in the Life of a Student in Deerfield Past and Present
• Easthampton High School:
  • American History Through the Local Lens
  • Hawks & Doves and In Between
• Gabriel Abbott Memorial Elementary School:
  • Forbidden Friendship: Finding the Facts Behind the Historical Fiction
  • The Long and Winding Road: A Visual History of the Mohawk Trail, Then and Now 
• Gateway Regional Junior High School - Welcome to the Hilltowns of the Gateway District 
• Gill-Montague Regional School District, Turners Falls High School, The Patch in Turners Falls
• Hadley Elementary School:
  • Farming in Hadley, 1800-2007
• Hilltown Cooperative Charter Public School, Basil Dorsey: Case Study of a Fugitive Slave in Florence, Massachusetts
• Hilltown Cooperative Charter Public School, Colonial Voices of Williamsburg, MA
• Hopkins Academy: 
  • There and Back Again:  The Story of One Small Town
• Hatfield Public Schools: Hatfield Elementary: Hatfield in Perspective
• Holyoke Public Schools:
  • Maurice A. Donahue School: Looking Back: The History of Holyoke’s Buildings
  • E.N. White Elementary School: The Immigrants of Holyoke and Their Churches
• Monson Public Schools, Granite Valley Middle School: Granite: A Solid Foundation for Monson
• North Adams Public Schools, Drury High School, Immigration and Industrialization in North Adams, Massachusetts
• Northampton Public Schools, Florence Learning Center, Connecting History to the Present
• Northampton Public Schools, Jackson Street Elementary, Revolutionary War-NorthamptonNorthampton Public Schools, Leeds Elementary School: King Philip’s War
• Northampton Public Schools, Jackson Street Elementary: Kindergarten, Then and Now
• Parker Charter School: 1969 Harvard Strike
• Pelham Public Schools: The Pelham Town Complex
• Pioneer Valley Performing Arts Charter Public School: The Spanish American War
• Providence Hospital A.R.T., Immigration to Holyoke, 1850-1900
• South Hadley Public Schools, Michael E. Smith Middle School: Our Connecticut River, and South Hadley During Antebellum and the Civil War
• Shutesbury Elementary School: Edward Hitchcock and the Pioneer Valley
• West Springfield Elementary Schools: The History of Schools in West Springfield