Four Hawaii public school students were honored for outstanding work at this year’s National History Day competition held last month at the University of Maryland at College Park.

Kahuku High & Intermediate School students Daniel Hoag, Kaylee Miller and Truman Spring received the Outstanding Junior Entry from Hawaii award for their group performance project titled "Crazy Horse: A Turning Point in the Lives of Native Americans." Mililani High School student Vivian Fang received the Outstanding Senior Entry from Hawaii award for her individual website project titled "From Prosperity to Poverty: Cromwell & Ireland."

Representing Hawaii at the national competition were 52 students from the following schools: Aiea Intermediate, Baldwin High, Kahuku High & Intermediate, Kailua Intermediate, Kainalu Elementary, Kalaheo High, Kamehameha-Kapalama, King Intermediate, Laie Elementary, Maui Preparatory Academy, Mid-Pacific Institute, Mililani High, Mililani Middle, Pearl City High, Sacred Hearts-Maui, St. Andrew’s Priory and Waipahu High. In addition to the two outstanding state entries, student entries from Kailua Intermediate, Kainalu Elementary, Kalaheo High and Pearl City High also placed within the top 15 in the national competition.

National History Day is a yearlong academic program for elementary and secondary school students focused on the teaching and learning of history.

In other awards and recognition:

» Tim Motts, CEO of Boys & Girls Club of Hawaii, and Natalie Pawluk, director of Boys & Girls Club of Hawaii Honolulu Spalding Clubhouse, have received the Merit Award for Program Excellence in Health and Life Skills from President and CEO Jim Clark and Chairman of the Board Ron Gidwitz for Boys & Girls Club of America. The award was presented during the Boys & Girls Club of America’s 107th National Conference held in May in Orlando, Fla.

Merit awards for Program Excellence are sponsored by MetLife Foundation and presented annually for outstanding programs developed and implemented in Boys & Girls Clubs across the country. Each recognition comes with a $2,000 award.

The Honolulu Spalding Clubhouse was recognized for its Girl Power program, which encourages girls ages 7-12 to make positive choices in life, maintain healthy friendships and relationships, and explore a variety of career options. The Boys & Girls Club of Hawaii serves more than 14,000 youngsters ages 7 to 17 on Oahu and Kauai.

» Kapiolani Community College’s CanSat team took home the top prize for designing, building and launching a space-related mission at the annual CanSat International Competition held last month in Abilene, Texas.Sponsored by the American Astronautical Society (AAS), the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) and NASA, the competition involves teams designing, building and launching a space-related mission.

Known as "Team Mod 6," the Kapiolani Community College team competed against teams representing universities in Iran, Canada, India and the United States. According to team faculty adviser and Kapiolani Community College professor Hervé Collin, the students launched their final payload on a rocket flying around 2,000 feet above Texas. They then gave a Post Flight Review (PFR) presentation aimed at reporting a complete post-flight analysis describing all the telemetry data gathered during the actual flight.

Members of the 2013 Cansat team: Diamond Tachera, Kelsey Kawaguchi, Rae-zan Raposas, Joshua Tamayo, Logan Tamayo, McClyde Gaborno and Taylor Viti.