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Ellis Abel Learns.

In my own words · Topeka, KS

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 Topeka, KS.
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 Topeka.

What it really is

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

Three things to try today

  1. Make something that rolls.
  2. Add a way for it to steer.
  3. 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 Topeka, KS.
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

The Topeka, KS metro area has about 233,052 residents, ranking 206th in the country. Somewhere in that number is a kid who lights up about robots and has never met another one.

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 — Topeka, KS →

Love something else too

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 Topeka, KS.Why I love engineeringThe 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 Topeka, KS.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 Topeka, KS.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 Topeka, KS.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 Topeka, KS.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 Topeka, KS.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 Topeka, KS.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 Topeka, KS.Why I love physics

Near Topeka

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