4-H'ers ‘snap' into science, engineering and technology

Clark County 4-H'ers discovered the fun and excitement of science, engineering and technology during a daylong program on Snap Electricity.

"They see circuit boards in their video games and other electronics, but they don't really know what they are; so they actually learn how to put one together and see how it works," said Heather Cassill, Clark County 4-H youth development agent with the University of Kentucky Cooperative Extension Service.

The participants learned about the function of circuits by completing different activities from a Snap Circuits Junior 100 Electricity kits.

"With the kits, they actually had to observe and read the directions and try to figure out what the electricity circuits are going to do like turn on a light bulb, make sound vibrations and other things like that," Cassill said.

The 4-H'ers learned about electricity, conductors and insulators by putting together lamps made from pop cans. Additionally, they soldered circuit boards from the Kentucky Electronic Education Project that was developed by UK professor Janet Lumpp.

4-H'er Hannah Robinson said she had done projects like this in school before, but still enjoys doing them.

"What we're really trying to learn about is how circuits, electrons and electricity work," she said. "It's very interesting how many things they can do."

The 4-H'ers not only learned about electricity, but were encouraged to enter their lamps into a 4-H exhibit at the county fair, said Roy Turley, also a Clark County 4-H youth development agent.

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