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Ellis Abel Learns.

In my own words · Middlesex County, VA

Why I love engineering

The tracked crawler-transporter carries a mobile launcher platform and twin solid rocket boosters along the crawlerway toward Launch Pad 39A. Real NASA photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Engineering" page — read by families in Middlesex County, VA.
The tracked crawler-transporter carries a mobile launcher platform and twin solid rocket boosters along the crawlerway toward Launch Pad 39A. NASA · Public domain
  • I get to build it and then break it on purpose.
  • There is never one right answer. There are trade-offs.
  • The second version is always better than the first.

You can love engineering in Middlesex County.

What it really is

Engineering is building something that has to work under real limits.

Three things to try today

  1. Build a bridge out of paper that holds a book.
  2. Load it until it fails. Watch where it fails.
  3. Rebuild that part and load it again.
Engineers in clean-room suits test the robotic arm of the InSight Mars lander on a work stand before launch. Real NASA photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Engineering" page — read by families in Middlesex County, VA.
Engineers in clean-room suits test the robotic arm of the InSight Mars lander on a work stand before launch. NASA/JPL-Caltech · Public domain

For the grown-up reading this

This page is written to the child, not about them. If a kid in Middlesex County, VA loves engineering, here is the grown-up version of what they already feel. Middlesex County is one of 134 counties in Virginia.

Load to failure and record the number. Testing to destruction is how engineers learn, not a mistake.

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 — Middlesex County, VA →

Love something else too

The International Space Station with its newly attached Destiny laboratory, photographed from space shuttle Atlantis above a cloud-covered Earth. Real NASA photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Space" page — read by families in Middlesex County, VA.Why I love spaceA Hubble Space Telescope view of the faint blue spiral galaxy NGC 3274 surrounded by scattered stars on a black background. Real NASA photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Astronomy" page — read by families in Middlesex County, VA.Why I love starsA Rocket Lab Electron rocket lifts off from its launch pad, trailing a bright orange exhaust plume. Real NASA photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Rockets" page — read by families in Middlesex County, VA.Why I love rocketsNASA's long-nosed X-59 quiet supersonic aircraft flies over the California desert alongside an F/A-18 chase plane. Real NASA photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Planes" page — read by families in Middlesex County, VA.Why I love planesA 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 Middlesex County, VA.Why I love dronesTwelve 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 Middlesex County, VA.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 Middlesex County, VA.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 Middlesex County, VA.Why I love chemistry

Near Middlesex County

Why I love engineering, everywhere in the US · All things to love · STEM jobs you could do · Summer camps in Middlesex County