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Ellis Abel Learns.

In my own words · Fort Drum, NY

Why I love computers

Long rows of black cabinets housing the Discover supercomputer at the NASA Center for Climate Simulation. Real NASA photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Computers" page — read by families in Fort Drum, NY.
Long rows of black cabinets housing the Discover supercomputer at the NASA Center for Climate Simulation. NASA/Pat Izzo · Public domain
  • It does exactly what I say. Even when I say it wrong.
  • It never gets tired of trying again.
  • I can build a whole world inside it.

You can love computers in Fort Drum.

What it really is

A computer follows instructions perfectly and has no idea what you meant.

Three things to try today

  1. Give someone instructions to make a sandwich. Follow them exactly.
  2. Find the step you left out.
  3. Fix the step. Try again.
Students at the Swarmathon competition work at laptops to program small wheeled robots searching for tagged cubes. Real NASA photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Computers" page — read by families in Fort Drum, NY.
Students at the Swarmathon competition work at laptops to program small wheeled robots searching for tagged cubes. NASA · Public domain

For the grown-up reading this

Fort Drum is one of the cities the Watertown–Fort Drum, NY metro area is officially named after. Interest comes first and skill comes second, in that order, always. This page is for the first part.

The sandwich exercise teaches specification. It is the single best pre-coding activity there is.

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 — Fort Drum, NY →

Love something else too

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 Fort Drum, NY.Why I love codingA 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 Fort Drum, NY.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 Fort Drum, NY.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 Fort Drum, NY.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 Fort Drum, NY.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 Fort Drum, NY.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 Fort Drum, NY.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 Fort Drum, NY.Why I love planes

Near Fort Drum

Why I love computers, everywhere in the US · All things to love · STEM jobs you could do · Summer camps in Fort Drum