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Ellis Abel Learns.

In my own words · Winston-Salem, NC

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 Winston-Salem, NC.
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 Winston-Salem.

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 Winston-Salem, NC.
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

The Winston-Salem, NC metro area has about 712,206 residents, ranking 85th in the country. The question is not whether Winston-Salem, NC has children who love engineering. It is whether anyone told them that counts as something.

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 — Winston-Salem, NC →

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 Winston-Salem, NC.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 Winston-Salem, NC.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 Winston-Salem, NC.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 Winston-Salem, NC.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 Winston-Salem, NC.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 Winston-Salem, NC.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 Winston-Salem, NC.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 Winston-Salem, NC.Why I love chemistry

Near Winston-Salem

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