Indus ninth-grader Nathan Lewis never thought a school project would make him appreciate the education he’s getting in rural Minnesota.

Lewis is one of two Indus finalists — the other, ninth-grader Samantha Hervey — who made it to the state level of competing in the National History Day competition. His exhibit and research paper titled “Minnesota Miracle,” describes the historical reform that allowed students in rural schools to get the same educational opportunities as their counterparts in metropolitan schools.

“At first, I thought the Minnesota Miracle was just changing the way schools were structured,” Lewis explained. “But they totally equaled out the districts throughout the states. Everyone who was living in the boonies had crappy (low) property taxes, and people in the city paid high taxes. So the kids in urban areas were getting a way better education than kids in rural districts, because they got more funding from taxes.”

Lewis began learning this in January, when his social studies class, taught by Indus teacher Corinne Anderson, took a trip to the Minnesota Historical Society in St. Paul.

Anderson said the “big research trip” offers the chance for students to research primary sources — from artifacts, to historical letters, journals and collections, she said.

“They directly look at material that has come from the past,” Anderson said. “It’s an exciting opportunity for kids.”

Before Lewis and Hervey qualified for state, they won the school wide competition and the regional competition — representing one of 13 state regions — which was held in Bagley in March. Indus ninth-grade student Ted Nelson made honorable mention at the regional competition for his exhibit on Minnesota taconite mining. Lewis and Hervey will continue to the state competition in Minneapolis in two weeks. The competition will take place on April 29 at the University of Minnesota. Students who qualify move on to the national competition in Maryland in June.

Hervey’s project, called “Nuclear Drama,” was most exciting when she went through boxes of old mailers and fliers from the 1960s at the historical society, she said.

“There were really provocative flyers, very entertaining, with big headlines like, ‘We’re mad as hell!’ and a picture of a kid with a nuclear bomb flying over him,” she said of her research on the history of nuclear power in Minnesota. “These nuclear power plants were basically built against the public’s will. There was a lot of local resistance.”

Her exhibit, like Lewis’, is on a display board accompanied by a research paper. The competition requires students to demonstrate how and why their topic or findings are significant to history. This year’s national theme is “Revolution, Reaction, Reform in History.” The theme encourages students to explore “changed moments in history,” according to the Minnesota Historical Society website on history day.

An additional theme requirement for Anderson’s class was that the historical topic must relate to Minnesota, Anderson said.

Hervey said she was able to have fun with the theme in choosing her topic, and was most excited to learn about how the history of nuclear power affects the present day.

“One of the things I didn’t know is that there is no way to get rid of nuclear waste. So they store it in containment pools underground, and every once in a while, they build more,” she explained. “These release extremely toxic fumes — they affect your fatty tissue, and the radiation increases your risk of breast cancer by about 20 percent, they say.”

Hervey said during her research, discovering the locations of the two nuclear power plants in Minnesota surprised her.

“Probably the most frightening thing is that we have nuclear power plants, both so close — within 50 miles of the Twin Cities,” she said. “If we did have a meltdown, it would make southern Minnesota uninhabitable for thousands of years.”

Hervey said she didn’t expect to “make it this far” and qualify for the state competition, but so far, she is enjoying the experience.

Lewis said he is proud of the amount of work he put into his project.

“I just worked hard and got a lot of support from my family,” he said.

The Indus schoolwide competition allows students in grades six through 12 to participate. Anderson’s class participates in the senior division. Each year, Indus students make it to the state competition, Anderson added.

Indus principal Brian Brown was one of the judges during the schoolwide competition and Indus history fair.

“It was difficult — all the students worked really hard,” Brown said. “There were a lot of great projects.”

Brown said he was excited to be involved in the process and see the students succeed.

“This is a great representation of a small school in rural Minnesota,” Brown said. “Indus is being represented well.”