CHARLESTON, W.Va. — From baseball to Rosa Parks, to the U.S. Border Wall, students from schools across the state are taking their social studies projects to the top.

More than 500 students presented their projects at the 48th annual West Virginia Social Studies Fair at the Charleston Coliseum and Convention Center Friday.

Nearly 350 different projects at the fair included topics that fell under categories relating to U.S history, psychology, anthropology, political science, among other subjects.

State Department of Education Office of Student Enrichment Coordinator Dustin Lambert said the students are passionate and enthusiastic about the topics they cover.

“Whether it’s a project on state and local government, or a project on economics or something to do with geography, you’re going to see that these children come here today and they are exceptionally passionate about their research,” Lambert said.

Lambert said the students who have made it to the state social studies fair have won with their projects at their school fair as well as on a county-wide and regional level.

They were divided into three divisions:

Division One: Grades 3 – 5
Division Two: Grades 6 – 8
Division Three: Grades 9 – 12

A fifth grader at Ruffner Elementary School in Charleston Anna Philips explains what her project was about.

“Our project is about Rosa Parks, it’s called “Taking a Seat to Take a Stand,” and it’s about how Rosa Parks jumpstarted the Civil Rights Movement,” said Anna Philips.

Fifth graders Mya Durden and Jaleigh Tyler were her partners with the project.

They explained why they became inspired to learn more about Rosa Parks and her impact on the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s.

“We learned a little bit about it in class and were interested in it, so we decided to do our project on it,” Mya Durden said.

“It was inspiring to see how she stood up for her race,” added Jaleigh Tyler.

Lauren Bledsoe, a fourth grade student from Pineville Elementary in Wyoming County said the Southern Border Wall was an important topic to present at the social studies fair.

“The reason why we’re doing it is because people are coming from Mexico and that is not good for our country, because they are bringing drugs into our country, they’re murdering our citizens, and kidnapping our children for human trafficking,” said Lauren Bledsoe.

She partnered up with fellow fourth graders Charlotte Bledsoe and Bristol Mahan to do the project.

Charlotte said they felt everyone should know the truth about what’s going on at the southern border.

“This is very important to our country and to our people, so we just did it because it’s great for our citizens to know,” she said.

“Three Strikes and You’re Out” covering baseball in Washington D.C. was fourth grade student Caroline Anderson and third grade student Calvin Railey’s project. They came from Petersburg Elementary in Grant County.

“We both like baseball and we really wanted to explore the economics of how D.C. lost its baseball team several times,” said Calvin Railey.

And both said they enjoyed being able to blend their love of D.C. baseball with their love of social studies.

“I think this has been very cool, I’ve been to a lot of nationals games and I think this is just really cool,” Caroline Anderson said.

“Yeah, it’s very cool to see like all of the people against us, and that we made it this far,” Calvin added.

He said it was especially exciting for him considering it was his first time getting to compete in the state social studies fair.

Lambert said students got to choose from nine different subject categories.

Additionally, he said this year and next year, they added a special topic category, “America 250,” in recognition of the country turning 250 years old next July.

Dustin Lambert

Lambert said 43 of the 55 counties were being represented at the fair Friday, and approximately 550 students were participating.

He said this is the final competition for the students and the highest level of judging, so, taking home first place or not, they should all feel proud they made it this far.

“I think it’s really exciting at the awards ceremony, because they put a lot of time and energy into this project, and to receive a first place or even a second or third place, they’re very proud of their efforts, as is their parents and their guardians, and I think they have every right to be,” he said.

Lambert said a first place winner must have a score of 90.

The winning projects were to be read off at the awards ceremony Friday afternoon.