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Ellis Abel Learns.

In my own words · Cedar Rapids, IA

Why I love energy

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 Cedar Rapids, IA.
Two rocket engine tests fire at once on the test stands at Stennis Space Center, throwing huge white exhaust plumes into the air. NASA · Public domain
  • It never disappears, it just changes clothes.
  • Everything that moves got it from somewhere.
  • I can trace it back to the start.

You can love energy in Cedar Rapids.

What it really is

Energy changes form but never vanishes, and you can follow it backwards.

Three things to try today

  1. Pick something that is moving.
  2. Ask where the energy came from.
  3. Keep asking until you reach the sun.

For the grown-up reading this

The Cedar Rapids, IA metro area has about 279,285 residents, ranking 183rd in the country. Interest comes first and skill comes second, in that order, always. This page is for the first part.

Almost every chain ends at the sun. Following it there is a genuinely large idea.

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 — Cedar Rapids, IA →

Love something else too

The 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 Cedar Rapids, IA.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 Cedar Rapids, IA.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 Cedar Rapids, IA.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 Cedar Rapids, IA.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 Cedar Rapids, IA.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 Cedar Rapids, IA.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 Cedar Rapids, 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 Cedar Rapids, IA.Why I love whales

Near Cedar Rapids

Why I love energy, everywhere in the US · All things to love · STEM jobs you could do · Summer camps in Cedar Rapids