GETAWAY — A teacher at Collins Career Technical Center is one of only 98 teachers selected for a National History Day summer professional development program.

Elizabeth Crawford, who teaches American government to juniors at the school, completed the six-week course this summer through a virtual program.

It focuses on using online Library of Congress resources to develop and support historical arguments and is a feature of NHD’s membership in the Library of Congress Teaching with Primary Sources Consortium.

Crawford said she will take what she learned and apply it to her classes this fall. She said this will allow students to create historical arguments in the classroom.

“It will help them understand and learn how to do research,” she said.

She said, many times, she asked students why they believe what they do and they can not give strong evidence to support their opinions.

She said she hopes to teach them how to use a research-based approach backing up what they believe.

She said students will come up with a thesis at the beginning of a course, then use credible research to support it.

The National History Day program in Ohio selected Crawford, who has been at CCTC for four years and also teaches psychology and sociology to seniors. NHD affiliates include all 50 states and the District of Columbia, American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico and international school programs in China, South Asia and South Korea.

“As a TPS Consortium member, we are thrilled to utilize the vast array of digitized primary sources made available online by the Library of Congress,” National History Day executive director Dr. Cathy Gorn said. “At the conclusion of this course, Mrs. Crawford will be able to share with her students key strategies for researching, supporting, and presenting historical arguments backed up by these primary sources. This is a crucial skill in teaching and learning good history, and is especially valuable now when so many students and teachers across the country are engaged in remote learning due to the coronavirus pandemic.”

As one of the selected teachers, Crawford receives free tuition, graduate credits, and materials for the online program.