‘Embrace the cringe’: at National History Day, kids impress judges by digging up the past

Witch trials, Radio Free Europe and Green Day were all fair game for middle- and high-school competitors, who got their hands dirty for the sake of learning a full history -thorns and all

It only took 10 minutes for the trio of eighth-grade girls to recount the life story of Carol Ruckdeschel, the alligator-wrestling environmental activist sometimes called the Jane Goodall of sea turtles".

Inside the student union at the University of Maryland, about a 20-minute drive from Washington DC, and armed with papier-mache reptiles, they embarked on a performance that included a litany of costume changes and a pony-tailed rendition of the late president Jimmy Carter, an ally of the 83-year-old Ruckdeschel's work.