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Ellis Abel Learns.

In my own words · Ames, IA

Why I love cars

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 Ames, IA.
The four-wheeled Artemis Jr. prototype rover, topped with a solar array, driving across a grass field beside the Operations and Checkout Building. NASA/Dimitri Gerondidakis · Public domain
  • Thousands of parts and they all have to agree.
  • It turns fuel or charge into going somewhere.
  • When it makes a noise, the noise means something.

You can love cars in Ames.

What it really is

A car converts stored energy into motion through a long chain of parts.

Three things to try today

  1. Find where the energy goes in.
  2. Find where the motion comes out.
  3. Name three parts in between.

For the grown-up reading this

The Ames, IA metro area has about 128,090 residents, ranking 323rd in the country. Interest comes first and skill comes second, in that order, always. This page is for the first part.

Input, output, and the chain between. That framing works on any machine.

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 — Ames, IA →

Love something else too

A 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 Ames, 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 Ames, 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 Ames, 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 Ames, 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 Ames, 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 Ames, 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 Ames, IA.Why I love technologyLong rows of black cabinets housing the Discover supercomputer at the NASA Center for Climate Simulation. Real NASA photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Computers" page — read by families in Ames, IA.Why I love computers

Near Ames

Why I love cars, everywhere in the US · All things to love · STEM jobs you could do · Summer camps in Ames