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Ellis Abel Learns.

In my own words · Columbia, SC

Why I love wind

The two-bladed Mod-1 wind turbine standing on its lattice tower on a hilltop at Boone, North Carolina. Real NASA photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Wind Power" page — read by families in Columbia, SC.
The two-bladed Mod-1 wind turbine standing on its lattice tower on a hilltop at Boone, North Carolina. NASA · Public domain
  • Air pushes the blade and the blade makes power.
  • The bigger the blade, the more it catches.
  • You can see it working from far away.

You can love wind in Columbia.

What it really is

A wind turbine converts moving air into rotation and then into electricity.

Three things to try today

  1. Make a pinwheel.
  2. Change the blade shape and try again.
  3. Say which shape spun faster and why.

For the grown-up reading this

Nobody has to talk a child into liking wind. They have to not talk them out of it. The Columbia, SC metro area has about 879,918 residents, ranking 71st in the country.

Blade shape versus speed is a fair test with one variable. That is the whole scientific method.

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, SC →

Love something else too

An orange-and-white Saildrone autonomous research vessel under sail on the water near San Francisco Bay. Real NASA photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Oceans" page — read by families in Columbia, SC.Why I love the oceanA USGS cartographer bends over a light table, scribing contour lines by hand onto a topographic map separation. Real USGS photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Maps" page — read by families in Columbia, SC.Why I love mapsA worker checks a replacement distillation assembly for the space station's water recycling system in a processing facility. Real NASA photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Recycling" page — read by families in Columbia, SC.Why I love recyclingAn aerial photograph of the Vehicle Assembly Building under construction at Kennedy Space Center, its steel frame still open to the sky. Real NASA photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Building" page — read by families in Columbia, SC.Why I love buildingAn aerial view of construction crews and barges working to complete the westbound span of the Indian River causeway bridge. Real NASA photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Bridges" page — read by families in Columbia, SC.Why I love bridgesThe four-wheeled Artemis Jr. prototype rover, topped with a solar array, driving across a grass field beside the Operations and Checkout Building. Real NASA photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Cars" page — read by families in Columbia, SC.Why I love carsA humpback whale launching most of its body out of the ocean in a breach, with spray flying off its flippers. Real USGS photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Whales" page — read by families in Columbia, SC.Why I love whalesA bee crawling over the yellow centre of a wildflower while pollinating it on Kennedy Space Center property. Real NASA photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Insects" page — read by families in Columbia, SC.Why I love bugs

Near Columbia

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