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Ellis Abel Learns.

In my own words · Springfield, IL

Why I love drones

A FreeFly Alta X quadcopter drone hovers in the air during wildfire response flight tests near Redding, California. Real NASA photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Drones" page — read by families in Springfield, IL.
A FreeFly Alta X quadcopter drone hovers in the air during wildfire response flight tests near Redding, California. NASA/Joel Kowsky · Public domain
  • I can see from up there without going up there.
  • Four little motors, and it holds still in the air.
  • It goes where I tell it, and I have to be exact.

You can love drones in Springfield.

What it really is

A drone holds position by adjusting four motors thousands of times a second.

Three things to try today

  1. Watch a drone hover and count the corrections you can see.
  2. Draw a flight path on paper first.
  3. Fly the path you drew.
Pilot Jonas Jonsson kneels on the ground performing pre-flight checks on an Alta X drone during Cal Fire training exercises. Real NASA photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Drones" page — read by families in Springfield, IL.
Pilot Jonas Jonsson kneels on the ground performing pre-flight checks on an Alta X drone during Cal Fire training exercises. NASA/Joel Kowsky · Public domain

For the grown-up reading this

The Springfield, IL metro area has about 206,033 residents, ranking 230th in the country. The question is not whether Springfield, IL has children who love drones. It is whether anyone told them that counts as something.

Plan the path before flying. Airspace rules and a pre-flight checklist belong from day one.

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 — Springfield, IL →

Love something else too

Twelve gold-coated hexagonal mirror segments of the James Webb Space Telescope installed side by side on the telescope's backplane at Goddard. Real NASA photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Telescopes" page — read by families in Springfield, IL.Why I love telescopesThe Cold Atom Laboratory, two white equipment containers packed with lasers and vacuum hardware, on a bench before flight. Real NASA photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Physics" page — read by families in Springfield, IL.Why I love physicsFive labeled water-quality sample bottles lined up in a bag, ready to be carried to the laboratory for analysis. Real USGS photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Chemistry" page — read by families in Springfield, IL.Why I love chemistryA Keyence optical microscope set up on a laboratory bench with its monitor and sample stage. Real USGS photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Microscopes" page — read by families in Springfield, IL.Why I love microscopesAn optical bench in the Laser Optics Laboratory at Ames Research Center, crowded with mirrors, lenses and beam paths. Real NASA photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Lasers" page — read by families in Springfield, IL.Why I love lasersThe last of four gold solar array wings is lowered into place on the Orion spacecraft's European Service Module. Real NASA photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Solar Power" page — read by families in Springfield, IL.Why I love the sunTwo large gantry 3D printers extrude curved concrete walls of subscale habitat structures side by side at NASA's 3D-Printed Habitat Challenge. Real NASA photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love 3D Printing" page — read by families in Springfield, IL.Why I love 3D printersPale rock outcroppings breaking through prairie grass in Big Cypress National Preserve. Real USGS photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Geology" page — read by families in Springfield, IL.Why I love the earth

Near Springfield

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