There were ways to gaze at the blazing sun in real time without scorching fragile eyeballs. There were 2-liter, tire-pumped, water bottle rockets blasting 150 feet in the air. There were inflatable bouncers, giant slides, climbing walls, cool free stuff, science demonstrations, and amiable experts galore.

But the undisputed star at yesterday's Mad About Science Festival at the Bishop Museum's Great Lawn, Watumull Planetarium, and Science Adventure Center was a mobile robot with blinking baby blue eyes, an inquisitive manner, a helium voice, and the gift of gab.

Kids and adults flocked around TERRI the Robot throughout the morning and afternoon. The gabby robot sang songs, charmed onlookers, and challenged anyone to ask him a question he couldn't answer. If no one had a question, TERRI would supply one himself.

"What's Luke Skywalker's favorite car?" he asked Randy Gillin, 10, of Kailua, before answering his own question. "A toy-Yoda."

With TERRI the phrase "pay no attention to that man behind the curtain" does not apply. That's because there's no one behind a curtain. Unlike shopping mall robots with voices supplied by some secret, nearby human with a remote microphone, TERRI speaks for himself, or herself if you prefer. Gender seemed to be a question. But TERRI did ask one girl for a date and her phone number, and just about everyone refers the robot as "he."

TERRI stands for The Educational Resource Robot Initiative, and is a Conceptual Visions Corporation robot sponsored by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to promote science education.

The technical description: "A fully integrated interactive robotic device that can be put into a fully automatic mode so that it can interact without any outside intervention or telemetry."

That's fancy talk for a robot with a personality and smarts.

"Terri has full artificial intelligence," said Nadia Sbeih, a NOAA outreach coordinator, who was one of TERRI's aides yesterday. "He's got a huge data base that's actually in Westin, Va. So he networks to that database, and then responds."

At around noon, as Ava Danko, 7, and her mom, Shannan Lewinski, moved in fast motion across the Great Lawn, an empty water bottle rocket crash-landed near Ava's feet. The girl jumped, let out a yelp, and then exclaimed, "All right! Now that was cool!"

Moments later the two entered the NOAA Explore Your World Exhibit, where Lewinski, an environmental literacy coordinator for NOAA, worked the exhibit counter.

"We've got science activity books, we've got 3D books, which are really awesome, we have CDs for teachers or students that have more science activities they can do, and we have washable tattoos — we don't have anything permanent," Lewinski told a patron.

There were also stickers, bookmarks and way cool, green and black writing instruments that operate like ballpoint pens but were really leaded pencils. The price for all the above: Free. Or, to be more precise, as Lewinski's assistant, John Parks, a NOAA marine scientist, put it, "They're yours — you paid for them with tax dollars."

Behind Lewinski and Parks, alone and silent, was TERRI. A cord led from the robot's back to a wall socket. Ava stared at the robot in awe. A procession of kids and adults continually entered the exhibit room to make inquiries.

"Will he be coming back out after a while?" asked one woman.

"How much longer will it be?" wondered a young boy.

Parks explained that TERRI's batteries were merely being recharged.

"It's like he's taking a little nap," Parks told the boy. "TERRI, like all of us, gets tired. He'll be ready to go again in about a half hour."

Lewinski and Parks spoke about how TERRI had handed out the awards at the 51st Annual Hawaii State Science and Engineering Fair at Blaisdell Arena on Wednesday.

"Kids were hanging on to TERRI, and you could tell TERRI was really jazzed about it," said Parks. "And when he came up on stage the kids all went, 'TEEERRI!' They all knew him by that point. He was a celebrity."