A Bedford High School student is one of the top 10 finalists in the National History Day’s individual documentary category. This year’s theme was “Turning Points in History.”
Amelie Kelly, who will be a senior at BHS, titled her documentary “From Concept to Checkout: How the Barcode Overcame Technological and Social Issues to Become a Turning Point in Grocery Store Scale.” https://youtu.be/5R9wse7w3Ow, arguing “that the barcode was a turning point in the grocery industry, as it increased productivity, profitability, and organization, allowing for a larger-scale model of grocery stores.”
Also recognized was “The 1949 Geneva Conventions: Turning Towards Humanity During War,” submitted by BHS students Shreyes Shivappa, Simon Bendersky, and Thomas Lundgren. It received honorable mention, meaning that it placed second in the first round of judging.
Kelly said her choice of subject was “inspired after watching a video about the impact the barcode has had. I was intrigued by the barcode’s fascinating yet overlooked history, and its relevance to the theme made it the perfect choice. It turned out to be a better topic than I could ever imagine.”
Her 10-minute self-narrated documentary features still and video supermarket scenes over the past seven decades as the technology developed and became the industry standard.
“One of the highlights of my research was the opportunity I got to interview Paul McEnroe, developer of the barcode, which provided valuable first-hand accounts of resistance faced when they tried to implement barcodes,” Kelly said.
She stressed that her research revealed not only technological challenges but “more interestingly, social issues the barcode faced.”
“Additionally, I drew parallels between the initial resistance to barcodes and modern opposition to automation technologies like artificial intelligence,” revealing “lessons from the story of the barcode that can be used to understand and adapt to resistance to automation today.”
Kelly’s recognition culminated months of research and refinement that began well before the BHS History Fair in January. The competition proceeded through regional and state levels, and at each level, “from interviews and judges’ feedback, it became clear that the obscurity of my topic made me stand out,” Kelly said. “They appreciated my interesting telling of an untold story.”
At National History Day, she said, “It was really cool to find out I was a finalist — seeing my name on the list of finalists was a payoff of these past eight months of hard work and research.”
Kelly said the five day competition was “an awesome experience.” The group did some touring in nearby Washington, DC. “My class missed the DC trip in eighth grade so it was really fun to get to explore DC with some of my friends,” she said.
She noted the History Day tradition of exchanging buttons from different states, “which was a good opportunity to talk to kids from all over,” she said. “Also, all of the projects were very impressive and a delight to see, a highlight was walking through the exhibit hall.”
Kelly observed that “going through the process of this project taught me valuable skills in research, critical thinking, and editing, which I anticipate will be useful and applicable to later projects I complete in my life. I want to pursue science in college and despite this being a history project, I was able to pick a topic in the direction of the interest.”
“I’d also just like to shout out the hard work of all my peers who competed at any level of the competition this year,” Kelly said. “There was a really strong group of projects from BHS this year and everyone put in lot of effort and hard work.”
National History Day is a nonprofit organization that operates an annual project-based competition for students in middle and high schools. The 2024 competition was held at the University of Maryland June 9-13.
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