In my own words · New Castle County, DE

Why I love robots

The Robonaut 2 humanoid robot, with a gold-visored head and two jointed arms, mounted inside the Destiny laboratory of the space station. Real NASA photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Robotics" page — read by families in New Castle County, DE. — The Robonaut 2 humanoid robot, with a gold-visored head and two jointed arms, mounted inside the Destiny laboratory of the space station. NASA · Public domain

I build it and then it moves by itself.
It only does what I told it. So I have to think first.
When it turns the wrong way, that is my job to fix.

You can love robots in New Castle County.

What it really is

A robot is a machine that senses something, decides something, and then moves.

Three things to try today

Make something that rolls.
Add a way for it to steer.
Set a course and see how far off it lands.

JPL engineers lean over the folded robotic arm of a Mars Exploration Rover, inspecting its joints in the lab. Real NASA photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Robotics" page — read by families in New Castle County, DE. — JPL engineers lean over the folded robotic arm of a Mars Exploration Rover, inspecting its joints in the lab. NASA/JPL-Caltech · Public domain

For the grown-up reading this

A child in New Castle County, DE who loves robots is not unusual. A child in New Castle County, DE who is told that loving robots is unusual — that is the problem. New Castle County is one of 3 counties in Delaware.

Sense, decide, act. Naming those three parts turns a toy into an engineering conversation.

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 — New Castle County, DE →