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Ellis Abel Learns.

In my own words · Del Norte County, CA

Why I love electricity

A technician sets up wiring and monitoring equipment at Launch Pad 39A for a shuttle tanking test. Real NASA photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Electricity" page — read by families in Del Norte County, CA.
A technician sets up wiring and monitoring equipment at Launch Pad 39A for a shuttle tanking test. NASA · Public domain
  • It goes around in a loop or it does not go.
  • It can make heat, light, or motion.
  • It is the same stuff as lightning.

You can love electricity in Del Norte County.

What it really is

Electricity is charge moving around a complete loop.

Three things to try today

  1. Find every switch in one room.
  2. Say what each one completes.
  3. Draw the loop for one of them.
A technician sets up wiring and monitoring equipment at Launch Pad 39A for a shuttle tanking test. Real NASA photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Electricity" page — read by families in Del Norte County, CA.
A technician sets up wiring and monitoring equipment at Launch Pad 39A for a shuttle tanking test. NASA · Public domain

For the grown-up reading this

A child in Del Norte County, CA who loves electricity is not unusual. A child in Del Norte County, CA who is told that loving electricity is unusual — that is the problem. Del Norte County is one of 58 counties in California.

A circuit must close. Once a child has that, half of electricity makes sense.

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 — Del Norte County, CA →

Love something else too

Two rocket engine tests fire at once on the test stands at Stennis Space Center, throwing huge white exhaust plumes into the air. Real NASA photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Energy" page — read by families in Del Norte County, CA.Why I love energyThe 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 Del Norte County, CA.Why I love windAn 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 Del Norte County, CA.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 Del Norte County, CA.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 Del Norte County, CA.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 Del Norte County, CA.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 Del Norte County, CA.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 Del Norte County, CA.Why I love cars

Near Del Norte County

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