The Northeast region was the one that won the most medals in the grand final of the 9th National Olympiad in Brazilian History (ONHB), held this weekend (19 and 20 August), at Unicamp, in Campinas (SP).
Marked by a lot of emotion, the event brought together more than 1,2 finalists from all Brazilian states, totaling 307 teams. The Northeast, which had the largest number of finalists, won a total of 52 medals.
Adding up the gold, silver and bronze medals, Ceará was the state with the most medalists (26); followed by Rio Grande do Norte (16); São Paulo (14); Bahia (6) and Pernambuco (4).
This year, ONHB had 48 thousand registered participants and divided into 12 thousand teams (made up of three students and one teacher). Of this total, 307 reached the in-person final, after competing in five phases with online tests. On Saturday, the finalists took an essay test and, on Sunday, they participated in the awards ceremony with the presence of authorities, teachers and family members, as well as a performance by a rock band.
In total, 75 teams received gold, silver or bronze medals according to their scores throughout the competition and the last event. The other teams took home a medal of honor for merit.
The rector of Unicamp, Marcelo Knobel, was present at the awards ceremony, congratulated the finalists and recalled the first editions of the Olympiad, when it still belonged to the Exploratory Science Museum. "I'm very happy to see the History Olympiad gain wings and have such autonomy today, bringing together young students from all over Brazil. Everyone is certainly a winner for being here today," he said.
“For this edition, we brought a challenging proposal to the participants, which was to think about the teaching of History at this time in Brazil when a series of issues, such as changes to the LDB [Laws and Guidelines and Bases of Education] and the school without party, created tension and a need on the part of History teachers to discuss the importance of this subject in a democratic country concerned with citizenship. We proposed this reflection and the result was excellent”, stated the ONHB coordinator, Cristina Meneguello.
For the medal-winning students, the emotion was great. The Ceará team “After 4 years, our last time” won a gold medal after participating in several editions of the event. “This is our last time at ONHB and I can say that the experience was very good. I want to come back one day as a team advisor or even one day as a test designer”, said medalist Felipe de Mello Souza, a 3rd year high school student.
Throughout this week, ONHB will also hold a free Training Course for 32 final year teachers with the highest scores in each state, who will remain in Campinas between the 21st and 25th of August. The course has the participation of Unicamp teachers and includes classes, lectures and technical visits to museums and archives.
How ONHB works
The National Olympiad in Brazilian History, a project developed by the university's History Department, is made up of five phases of tests carried out online, lasting one week each. Multiple choice questions and task completion are answered by participants through debate with colleagues, research in books, the internet and guidance from the teacher. The method, completely innovative, has as its main objective to encourage the development of critical analysis and discussions on the most varied subjects, through research, search for information, texts, images and maps. In this way, the ONHB consolidates itself as an important learning tool for teaching History. The project has support from CNPq (National Council for Scientific and Technological Development) and the Postgraduate Program in History at Unicamp.
Medalists by state
Bahia: 6 medals (2 gold, 4 bronze)
Ceará: 26 medals (6 gold, 4 silver, 16 bronze)
Minas Gerais: 2 medals (1 gold, 1 silver)
Mato Grosso do Sul: 1 medal (1 bronze)
Mato Grosso: 1 medal (1 silver)
Pará: 1 medal (1 bronze)
Paraíba: 1 medal (1 bronze)
Pernambuco: 4 medals (3 silver, 1 bronze)
Rio de Janeiro: 1 medal (1 silver)
Rio Grande do Norte: 16 medals (4 gold, 7 silver, 5 bronze)
Roraima: 1 medal (1 bronze)
Rio Grande do Sul: 1 medal (1 gold)
São Paulo: 14 medals (1 gold, 8 silver, 5 bronze)
