SOCIAL STUDIES give a human context for reality
FAST times in Morgan County
What we did . . . shows what we can do.
To put more SOCIAL STUDIES into daily lives of Morgan county residents, FAST began with travel grants to six Morgan County students to compete in the national Academic Olympics in New Orleans. Ever since, we encouraged local members to take part in games about the reality around us. We partner with the Morgan County Library and the Star Theater to host the annual Great Gray Matter Challenge, a community literacy activity covering all four general fields of the Forum’s interest. The annual Challenge continues successfully to collect funds for the Morgan County Library’s Literacy Fund. The social dynamics of sharing information is an integral part of our role in informal community education.
We have great talent in Morgan County. Our “BookWorms” team swept all four sections and won first place at the 2015 Brain Games of the Literacy Volunteers of the Eastern Panhandle. The BookWorms placed second in the 2017 Brain Games, and the 2018 Challenge winners placed third in the 2018 Brain Games.
The Morgan County Library and FAST held community discussions about computerized access to the rules by which people and local government work together (i.e., The West Virginia Code). They made a checklist to use as you follow the WV code about WV Open Governmental Proceedings Act; The Comprehensive Plan; Local Powers Act; State Building Codes; Land Use Planning.
Advanced travel awards in social studies were made to Dia Griffiths for a one-year service in South Korea, to Lesley Yost for WVU Study Abroad in Taiwan and to Conrad Shaun for WVU Study Abroad in Nanjing, China. Support was given to the local Civil War Historical society for a public marker sign. Songwriter contests made three awards from 17 original songs about “Social Justice” and three awards from 10 original songs about “Morgan County Life”. Travel awards supported Wind Dance Farm students to learn about West Virginia ecology and share that information with County residents. Other awards supported travel expenses for artists’ presentations of historic personages, a living history program supported by the Morgan County Public Library.
updated January, 2019