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Ellis Abel Learns.

In my own words · Blacksburg, VA

Why I love electricity

A technician sets up wiring and monitoring equipment at Launch Pad 39A for a shuttle tanking test. Real NASA photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Electricity" page — read by families in Blacksburg, VA.
A technician sets up wiring and monitoring equipment at Launch Pad 39A for a shuttle tanking test. NASA · Public domain
  • It goes around in a loop or it does not go.
  • It can make heat, light, or motion.
  • It is the same stuff as lightning.

You can love electricity in Blacksburg.

What it really is

Electricity is charge moving around a complete loop.

Three things to try today

  1. Find every switch in one room.
  2. Say what each one completes.
  3. Draw the loop for one of them.
A technician sets up wiring and monitoring equipment at Launch Pad 39A for a shuttle tanking test. Real NASA photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Electricity" page — read by families in Blacksburg, VA.
A technician sets up wiring and monitoring equipment at Launch Pad 39A for a shuttle tanking test. NASA · Public domain

For the grown-up reading this

A child in Blacksburg, VA who loves electricity is not unusual. A child in Blacksburg, VA who is told that loving electricity is unusual — that is the problem. The Blacksburg–Christiansburg–Radford, VA metro area has about 181,616 residents, ranking 250th in the country.

A circuit must close. Once a child has that, half of electricity makes sense.

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 — Blacksburg, VA →

Love something else too

Two rocket engine tests fire at once on the test stands at Stennis Space Center, throwing huge white exhaust plumes into the air. Real NASA photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Energy" page — read by families in Blacksburg, VA.Why I love energyThe two-bladed Mod-1 wind turbine standing on its lattice tower on a hilltop at Boone, North Carolina. Real NASA photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Wind Power" page — read by families in Blacksburg, VA.Why I love windAn orange-and-white Saildrone autonomous research vessel under sail on the water near San Francisco Bay. Real NASA photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Oceans" page — read by families in Blacksburg, VA.Why I love the oceanA USGS cartographer bends over a light table, scribing contour lines by hand onto a topographic map separation. Real USGS photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Maps" page — read by families in Blacksburg, VA.Why I love mapsA worker checks a replacement distillation assembly for the space station's water recycling system in a processing facility. Real NASA photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Recycling" page — read by families in Blacksburg, VA.Why I love recyclingAn aerial photograph of the Vehicle Assembly Building under construction at Kennedy Space Center, its steel frame still open to the sky. Real NASA photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Building" page — read by families in Blacksburg, VA.Why I love buildingAn 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 Blacksburg, VA.Why I love bridgesThe 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 Blacksburg, VA.Why I love cars

Near Blacksburg

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