Skip to content
Ellis Abel Learns.

In my own words · Portland, ME

Why I love coding

Two small AstroPi Raspberry Pi computers with camera modules floating in the Columbus laboratory of the space station. Real NASA photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Coding" page — read by families in Portland, ME.
Two small AstroPi Raspberry Pi computers with camera modules floating in the Columbus laboratory of the space station. NASA · Public domain
  • I type words and something happens.
  • The error message is the computer telling me where to look.
  • I made a thing that works. It did not exist before.

You can love coding in Portland.

What it really is

Coding is writing instructions carefully enough that a machine can follow them.

Three things to try today

  1. Write out how to tie a shoe, step by step.
  2. Have someone follow it with no help.
  3. Fix the step that failed.
Students from Montgomery College crouch beside their Swarmie robots, watching the code they wrote run during the Swarmathon competition. Real NASA photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Coding" page — read by families in Portland, ME.
Students from Montgomery College crouch beside their Swarmie robots, watching the code they wrote run during the Swarmathon competition. NASA · Public domain

For the grown-up reading this

Nobody has to talk a child into liking coding. They have to not talk them out of it. The Portland–South Portland, ME metro area has about 577,635 residents, ranking 102nd in the country.

Errors are information, not failure. A child who reads error messages is already debugging.

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 — Portland, ME →

Love something else too

A close-up of one row of the Discover supercomputer, showing about 2,000 processors stacked in cabinets with cabling. Real NASA photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Data" page — read by families in Portland, ME.Why I love dataThe 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 Portland, ME.Why I love robotsThe 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 Portland, ME.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 Portland, ME.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 Portland, ME.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 Portland, ME.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 Portland, ME.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 Portland, ME.Why I love drones

Near Portland

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