Tom is a tenth grade Caucasian student who attends a public high school in the state of Washington. The school has an enrollment between 1,500 and 2,000 students and he lives in a community with a population between 5,000 and 10,000. Tom used Apple iMovie to produce a documentary on Edward R. Murrow. He used Canadian brass music, film of Murrow's television broadcasts, photographs of Murrow, and added his narration to produce the documentary. He interviewed thirteen individuals who personally knew Murrow and also examined primary documents at the Edward R. Murrow School of Communication at Washington State University. The major focus of Tom's documentary was the impact that Murrow had on journalism. His documentary pointed out that Murrow believed it was necessary for a journalist to bring the events of the world to the common citizens like those he grew up with in a logging community in Washington.

      Leslie is a ninth grade Caucasian student from a public school in the District of Columbia. She attends a high school with an enrollment between 500 and 1000 students and lives in a community with a population greater than 100,000. She used Adobe Premier to produce her documentary on New York Times v. Sullivan. Her documentary gave a historical overview on the First Amendment which included a brief review of the Sedition Act and Espionage Act. In addition, her documentary pointed out the issues at stake in the Supreme Court case and how the actual malice standard was established as a result. She demonstrated an ability to develop a thesis when she explained how the court's decision had an impact on what journalists can do today. Her documentary included images of newspaper headlines, interviews with legal experts, and she used her narration to tell the audience about this topic.

      Paul is a ninth grade Caucasian student who lives in a community with a population less than 10,000 and attends a public high school in New Jersey. The high school has an enrollment between 500 and 1,000 students. He produced a documentary on the Armenian genocide in which he explained why the world did little to intervene to prevent the genocide from occurring. In particular, he emphasized that the United States government was too distracted with the events of World War I to intervene. The event also was scarcely noticed by the public. "It was usually masked by the huge headlines in the New York Times," he told me, continuing that "invasions and stuff like that and main battle then in a couple of pages after the main headline you'll see a little blurb that says 800,000 Armenians being killed, you know, stuff like that." His documentary included many disturbing images of the genocide, violin music that set the mood for the documentary, and, of course, his narration.

      Nancy is a tenth grade Caucasian student who attends a public high school with an enrollment of over 2,000 students in Nevada. She lives in a community with a population greater than 100,000. She used Windows Movie Maker to produce a documentary on Leni Riefenstahl, who was a German film producer best known for her documentary of the 1936 Olympic Games and the propaganda film, Triumph of the Will, featuring Adolf Hitler. She tried to show the viewer that Leni Riefenstahl produced many other movies not easily classified as propaganda during her career. Nancy spent a great deal of time featuring Riefenstahl's films on Africa and the ocean. However, Nancy pointed out in her documentary that it was the film on Hitler that always overshadowed the other films that she directed. Nancy's documentary included images from Riefenstahl's films, music carefully chosen to set a mood for the viewer, and photographs of Riefenstahl. She discussed with me why she felt the need to look at contrasting opinions.

      Jason is a tenth grade Caucasian student from a private high school in Minnesota that has an enrollment of less than 500 students. He lives in a community with a population over 100,000. He used Final Cut Pro Express and Photoshop video editing software to produce his documentary on Ernie Pyle, who was a journalist during World War II. Jason's documentary focused on how Pyle changed the role of a reporter during combat. Pyle was actually embedded with the soldiers in combat instead of reporting behind the scenes with the generals. Jason said of Pyle, "He'd tell the personalized story like his parents at home [who] were baker and homemaker. [His parents] wrote him every day and so it gave you an insight into a man's life." Jason had accessed many primary sources at the Indiana Historical Society, found there because Pyle was a native of Indiana. The documentary included many photographs of Pyle, Jason's narration, and carefully selected music to tell the story.

      Amy is an eleventh grade Caucasian student from a public high school in Illinois. She attends a high school that has an enrollment of over 2,000 students and she lives in a community with a population between 5,000 and 10,000. She used Final Cut Pro video editing software to produce a documentary on Adlai Stevenson's role during the Cuban missile crisis. She used film of the crisis, photographs of Stevenson, her narration, and music from Stevenson's Presidential campaign to produce her documentary. Amy said that she had "tried to study the crisis and the way Stevenson was perceived from all three perspectives, from the American view, from the Soviet Union's view, and from the Cuban view." In fact, she even interviewed a Cuban government official. By taking this approach she discovered that all three counties viewed Stevenson's handling of the crisis favorably and that he had played a valuable role as ambassador to the United Nations.

      Elizabeth is a tenth grade Caucasian student from a public high school in Wisconsin. She attends a school with an enrollment between 1,000 and 1,500 students. Her community has a population less than 5,000. She used Apple iMovie to produce a documentary on the impact that punk musicians had on social movements in London and the United States during the 1970s. Elizabeth used film of punk musicians, reproduced lyrics used by the musicians, played music by punk musicians, and included a narration to explain her historical findings.

      Darrell is a ninth grade Caucasian student from a public high school in Minnesota. He attends a high school with an enrollment between 1,500 and 2,000 students and lives in a community with a population greater than 100,000. He used Pinnacle Studio to produce his video on Jack the Ripper. Darrell's documentary focused on the impact that Jack the Ripper had on England's politics during the late 1880s. He described to me how the Democratic Socialists sought votes not only by pointing to social conditions in places like White Chapel, but also used the case to show that the police could not do their job. "There was a huge rift there, a lot of West Enders, middle and upper class did not know what was going on in the East End," Darrel said, but Jack the Ripper showed them that "they could not ignore conditions on the other side of town." Darrell used images of historical documents, newspaper headlines, a narration, and he even appeared in his documentary dressed up in clothes from the era.

      Diane is a twelfth grade Caucasian student who has been home schooled in Virginia. She lives in a community with a population between 15,000 and 20,000 people. She used Pinnacle Studio to produce her documentary on the role of preachers in the events leading up to the American Revolution. She used the song "Faith of Our Fathers" and photographs of the ministers that she discussed in her narration. However, the majority of her documentary involved scenes that she and her brothers had acted out which added much to her film. She proved to me that she had developed a good understanding of the era, describing to me how Patrick Henry had written that when a young man he had been taken by his mother "to listen to the Reverend Samuel Davis preach" and that "just learning the Reverend Davis' speaking style ... really helped him with all his speeches—but then too about liberty, freedom of speech, freedom of religion." The main focus of her film was the influence that the preachers had on moving people toward war with England.

      Finally, Roxanne produced a documentary on the Makah Native American Culture Center. She is an eleventh grade Caucasian student from the state of Washington. She attends a public high school with an enrollment between 1,000 and 1,500 students and lives in a community with a population less than 5,000. She used Adobe Premier video editing software. Her documentary included Native American music, film of the culture center, photographs of the Native Americans, and her own narration. The documentary focused on how the culture center has helped to revive the tribe's emphasis on its heritage.