4-H youth gets jump on engineering career

Electrifying project wins his category for third year in a row.

Staff photo by Richard O Jones Grant Abbott of Fairfield Twp. won first prize for his “Wired for Power” 4-H project.

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By Richard O Jones, Staff Writer 2:20 AM Thursday, July 28, 2011

HAMILTON — Grant Abbott, member of the Fairfield Busy Bunch 4-H Club, is now three-for-three in his electricity-related projects, earning a first place trophy for “Wired for Power,” a model demonstration of home-wiring basics.

His first two projects, “Magic of Electricity” and “Investigating Electricity” also won first place in previous years.

“My first year, I was trying to find some project to do to learn more about electricity because I’m interested in becoming an engineer,” he said. “I really liked that project, so I continued doing them.”

For this one, he said, “I learned how an outlet works and how you wire a switch to power a light bulb.”

All this is contained in a small panel with a switch, outlet and light bulb fixture that he put together himself.

He said the judge was impressed with how the project was put together and the knowledge he gained about how electricity works in the home.

The son of Doug and Cathy Abbott of Fairfield Twp., Doug said he is interested in following in his father’s career. Doug Abbott is an environmental engineer for Duke Energy, his wife said.

According to 4-H coordinator Erin Simpson Sloan, local 4-H youngsters turned in around 400 non-animal projects at the Butler County Fair this year. There are 70 4-H clubs in Butler County with around 1,400 members.

Contact this reporter at (513) 820-2188 or rjones@coxohio.com.

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