The Final Talk

So, it has been a crazy week here that is nearly over now. Yesterday I spent the day in Wichita shopping for the ingredients to build our bathroom remodel. .scheduled to take place sometime next week.  There is so much thought that goes into planning something like that. .especially when you don't have your own designer!! Thankfully, our carpenter happened to be in Wichita yesterday too, and met me to help get everything together. .what a blessing!!

Tonight, we are headed to the Rock and Worship Road Show. .featuring Mercy Me, Thousand Foot Krutch, Matt Maher, The Afters, and Jars of Clay. For $10 at the door in Dodge City. Can't Wait!! If you were reading my blog right after I started writing 2 years ago, we attended their Wichita show during the first annual tour that they put on. Mercy Me and the Afters performed that year as well, along with several other bands.  They rocked the house!! And I'm not sure you can beat Mercy Me (who sings I can only imagine).  It should be a great time!! And Dev is excited to attend his first concert!

Hope to have some pictures to show later. .but true to my promise. .I have posted our final talk from the week.  Grant is trying out the electricy project this year.  For Christmas he got a small project kit designed to teach different electricity concepts.  He is enjoying it so far. .and that's what we used to base his talk on.  Now, you may recall that I actually write the talks and then the boys practice and perform them.  I know NOTHING about electricity. .and I don't particularly care to know anything about electricity!! So much of the information came from his guide book! Grant had his talk nearly memorized on Monday. .but read much of it in front of the judge. .which was disappointing to me. .but I settled myself by being glad that he got up to perform without alot of complaining or nervousness!! He also got a blue ribbon on his talk!

Wishing everyone a great weekend!!

Have any of you ever wondered how something electric works? Like the light in your own bedrooms? Today I’m going to tell you a little bit about my electricity project. Hi my name is Grant Dunn. This is my 6th year in 4-H and my first year in electricity.

Electricity wasn’t invented by humans. It is something that has been around since the beginning of time. Some of the first known observations of electricity include the Egyptians finding a species of fish that was electrically charged and could shock people. Can you imagine how “shocked” they were over that?? (Grant thought this was the corny-est line EVER. .but he did elicit some laughs from the crowd-much to his annoyance!) Lightening is another phenomenon that has been observed for thousands of years. But it wasn’t until about the year 1600 that anyone actually recorded their studies about electricity. About 150 years later, someone you’ve all heard about by the name of Benjamin Franklin tried to demonstrate the electrical properties in lightening by flying a wet kite in a thunderstorm. I wouldn’t try that at home if I were you!!

Electricity is a natural force that is all around us. .all the time. Perhaps the easiest experiment to learn about “static” electricity is one you all have probably already tried yourselves. You’ll use a balloon that has been aired up. Rub it on your head at least 20 times. .now place it against the wall. .The electrical charge built by the friction of your head is what holds the balloon to the wall. Cool, huh??

There are a lot of things to learn and know about electricity for it to make sense. For Christmas I got this essential electronics kit because of my interest in the subject. One of the first things that I have studied and experimented with are circuits.

An electric circuit is a sequence of electrical components in a closed loop through which electrical current flows. By using circuit diagrams like these (show book), I can hook the components together to make a light bulb glow. Watch and see. I will show you a simple series circuit. This type is the most basic. .the electric current flows around a single path. .First I will take a 9V battery and hook it to these two cords. Then I will hook the resistor up, then the capasitor, then the led light, and it will glow up.

Pretty cool right?? A second type of circuit is the parallel circuit. .Components are connected in parallel (show them with your hands what parallel looks like) then the same voltage is applied to each component at the same time. Watch as I light up two bulbs with this parallel circuit.

So, I hope that the next time you turn on the light in your room, you might stop to think a minute about what an awesome phenomenon electricity REALLY is. .are there any questions?