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Ellis Abel Learns.

In my own words · McLean County, IL

Why I love chemistry

Five labeled water-quality sample bottles lined up in a bag, ready to be carried to the laboratory for analysis. Real USGS photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Chemistry" page — read by families in McLean County, IL.
Five labeled water-quality sample bottles lined up in a bag, ready to be carried to the laboratory for analysis. Carly Maas, USGS · Public domain
  • Two safe things can make a new thing.
  • The bubbles mean something is happening.
  • I can measure exactly how much.

You can love chemistry in McLean County.

What it really is

Chemistry is what happens when atoms rearrange into something different.

Three things to try today

  1. Mix baking soda and vinegar and watch.
  2. Do it again with half the vinegar.
  3. Say what changed and by how much.
A PhD fellow works at a bench in the USGS National Water Quality Laboratory measuring pharmaceutical concentrations in river water samples. Real USGS photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Chemistry" page — read by families in McLean County, IL.
A PhD fellow works at a bench in the USGS National Water Quality Laboratory measuring pharmaceutical concentrations in river water samples. U.S. Geological Survey · Public domain

For the grown-up reading this

A child in McLean County, IL who loves chemistry is not unusual. A child in McLean County, IL who is told that loving chemistry is unusual — that is the problem. McLean County is one of 102 counties in Illinois.

Half the vinegar makes it quantitative. That one change turns a trick into an experiment.

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 — McLean County, IL →

Love something else too

A Keyence optical microscope set up on a laboratory bench with its monitor and sample stage. Real USGS photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Microscopes" page — read by families in McLean County, IL.Why I love microscopesAn optical bench in the Laser Optics Laboratory at Ames Research Center, crowded with mirrors, lenses and beam paths. Real NASA photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Lasers" page — read by families in McLean County, IL.Why I love lasersThe 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 McLean County, IL.Why I love the sunTwo 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 McLean County, IL.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 McLean County, IL.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 McLean County, IL.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 McLean County, IL.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 McLean County, IL.Why I love earthquakes

Near McLean County

Why I love chemistry, everywhere in the US · All things to love · STEM jobs you could do · Summer camps in McLean County