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Ellis Abel Learns.

In my own words · Waterloo, IA

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 Waterloo, IA.
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 Waterloo.

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 Waterloo, IA.
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

Nobody has to talk a child into liking robots. They have to not talk them out of it. The Waterloo–Cedar Falls, IA metro area has about 169,189 residents, ranking 263rd in the country.

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 — Waterloo, IA →

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 Waterloo, IA.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 Waterloo, IA.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 Waterloo, IA.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 Waterloo, IA.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 Waterloo, IA.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 Waterloo, IA.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 Waterloo, IA.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 Waterloo, IA.Why I love physics

Near Waterloo

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