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Ellis Abel Learns.

In my own words · Des Moines, IA

Why I love bridges

An aerial view of construction crews and barges working to complete the westbound span of the Indian River causeway bridge. Real NASA photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Bridges" page — read by families in Des Moines, IA.
An aerial view of construction crews and barges working to complete the westbound span of the Indian River causeway bridge. NASA · Public domain
  • It holds up things much heavier than itself.
  • The shape is doing the work, not the size.
  • Someone calculated this before they built it.

You can love bridges in Des Moines.

What it really is

A bridge carries load by routing forces into shapes that handle them well.

Three things to try today

  1. Make a flat paper bridge and load it.
  2. Fold the same paper into a beam and load it again.
  3. Say why the second one held more.
An aerial view of construction crews and barges working to complete the westbound span of the Indian River causeway bridge. Real NASA photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Bridges" page — read by families in Des Moines, IA.
An aerial view of construction crews and barges working to complete the westbound span of the Indian River causeway bridge. NASA · Public domain

For the grown-up reading this

A child in Des Moines, IA who loves bridges is not unusual. A child in Des Moines, IA who is told that loving bridges is unusual — that is the problem. The Des Moines–West Des Moines, IA metro area has about 758,539 residents, ranking 82nd in the country.

Same material, different geometry, ten times the strength. It is the cleanest engineering demo there is.

If the kid who loves this is a girl

Read what one popular teacher said to one little girl who took out the classroom trash without being asked — and what that girl did with the rest of her life.

Girls are great at math — Des Moines, IA →

Love something else too

The four-wheeled Artemis Jr. prototype rover, topped with a solar array, driving across a grass field beside the Operations and Checkout Building. Real NASA photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Cars" page — read by families in Des Moines, IA.Why I love carsA humpback whale launching most of its body out of the ocean in a breach, with spray flying off its flippers. Real USGS photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Whales" page — read by families in Des Moines, IA.Why I love whalesA bee crawling over the yellow centre of a wildflower while pollinating it on Kennedy Space Center property. Real NASA photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Insects" page — read by families in Des Moines, IA.Why I love bugsA scientist looks through a microscope at human breast cancer cells in a cell bioassay laboratory, with an automated liquid handling robot behind her. Real USGS photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Medicine" page — read by families in Des Moines, IA.Why I love doctorsAstronaut Kate Rubins holds a handheld DNA sequencer while running a gene sequencing experiment aboard the space station. Real NASA photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Genetics" page — read by families in Des Moines, IA.Why I love DNAAstronaut Ricky Arnold processes swab samples of microbes collected from space station surfaces at a work station. Real NASA photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Germs" page — read by families in Des Moines, IA.Why I love germsA research laboratory seen from outside through a glass window, with a scientist inside preparing samples for analysis. Real USGS photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Science" page — read by families in Des Moines, IA.Why I love scienceA wide-angle view of the flight control room of NASA's Mission Control Center, filled with rows of consoles and display screens. Real NASA photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Technology" page — read by families in Des Moines, IA.Why I love technology

Near Des Moines

Why I love bridges, everywhere in the US · All things to love · STEM jobs you could do · Summer camps in Des Moines