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Ellis Abel Learns.

In my own words · Columbia, MO

Why I love the sun

The last of four gold solar array wings is lowered into place on the Orion spacecraft's European Service Module. Real NASA photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Solar Power" page — read by families in Columbia, MO.
The last of four gold solar array wings is lowered into place on the Orion spacecraft's European Service Module. NASA · Public domain
  • Sunlight goes in and electricity comes out.
  • There are no moving parts at all.
  • The fuel is free and it shows up every morning.

You can love the sun in Columbia.

What it really is

A solar cell turns light straight into electric current, with nothing spinning.

Three things to try today

  1. Find a solar calculator or garden light and cover it.
  2. Uncover it slowly and watch.
  3. Count how long it takes to work again.
A technician holds a light rig against an Orion solar array wing panel during an illumination test. Real NASA photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Solar Power" page — read by families in Columbia, MO.
A technician holds a light rig against an Orion solar array wing panel during an illumination test. NASA · Public domain

For the grown-up reading this

The Columbia, MO metro area has about 219,062 residents, ranking 219th in the country. Interest comes first and skill comes second, in that order, always. This page is for the first part.

No moving parts is the astonishing fact. Every other generator on earth spins something.

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 — Columbia, MO →

Love something else too

Two large gantry 3D printers extrude curved concrete walls of subscale habitat structures side by side at NASA's 3D-Printed Habitat Challenge. Real NASA photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love 3D Printing" page — read by families in Columbia, MO.Why I love 3D printersPale rock outcroppings breaking through prairie grass in Big Cypress National Preserve. Real USGS photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Geology" page — read by families in Columbia, MO.Why I love the earthCylindrical rock cores laid out in trays at the USGS Core Research Center, showing bands of different rock layers. Real USGS photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Rocks" page — read by families in Columbia, MO.Why I love rocksThree orange lava fountains jet more than 100 feet above the fissure 8 cone during the 2018 Kilauea eruption. Real USGS photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Volcanoes" page — read by families in Columbia, MO.Why I love volcanoesA jagged crack running across desert ground with a yellow tape measure stretched over it, marking surface rupture from the 2019 Searles Valley earthquake. Real USGS photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Earthquakes" page — read by families in Columbia, MO.Why I love earthquakesHundreds of dinosaur bones still embedded in the tilted rock wall inside the Dinosaur Quarry building at Dinosaur National Monument. Real USGS photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Fossils" page — read by families in Columbia, MO.Why I love fossilsThe historic quarry building at Dinosaur National Monument, built over steeply tilted Jurassic rock layers that hold a dinosaur bone bed. Real USGS photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Dinosaurs" page — read by families in Columbia, MO.Why I love dinosaursHurricane Juliette photographed from the Terra satellite as a huge white spiral of cloud with a clear eye at its centre. Real NASA photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Weather" page — read by families in Columbia, MO.Why I love weather

Near Columbia

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