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Ellis Abel Learns.

In my own words · Union County, IL

Why I love farms

A cultivated agricultural field stretching to the horizon with a wetland strip along its edge. Real USGS photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Farming" page — read by families in Union County, IL.
A cultivated agricultural field stretching to the horizon with a wetland strip along its edge. U.S. Geological Survey, Fort Collins Science Center · Public domain
  • All of the food starts here.
  • It is soil and water and timing.
  • Farmers use satellites now.

You can love farms in Union County.

What it really is

Farming is applied biology, chemistry and engineering, done outdoors at scale.

Three things to try today

  1. Grow one seed in a cup.
  2. Measure it every day for two weeks.
  3. Make a line of your measurements.
Student interns harvest and test plants from a growth experiment in the Space Life Sciences Laboratory at Kennedy Space Center. Real NASA photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Farming" page — read by families in Union County, IL.
Student interns harvest and test plants from a growth experiment in the Space Life Sciences Laboratory at Kennedy Space Center. NASA · Public domain

For the grown-up reading this

Union County is one of 102 counties in Illinois. Interest comes first and skill comes second, in that order, always. This page is for the first part.

A growth curve from a bean in a cup is a child's first real time-series.

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 — Union County, IL →

Love something else too

An alligator moving through a brackish waterway at Kennedy Space Center, only its eyes and back above the water. Real NASA photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Animals" page — read by families in Union County, IL.Why I love animalsRed leaf lettuce, mizuna mustard and green lettuce growing under pink-white LED lights in the Veggie plant growth hardware. Real NASA photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Plants" page — read by families in Union County, IL.Why I love plantsA pair of American bald eagles perched on the rim of their large stick nest on Kennedy Space Center property. Real NASA photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Birds" page — read by families in Union County, IL.Why I love birdsA blacktip reef shark swims just under the sunlit surface, above a head of coral, at Palmyra Atoll National Wildlife Refuge in the Pacific Ocean. Real USGS photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Sharks" page — read by families in Union County, IL.Why I love sharksAstronaut Mike Fincke reaches into the sealed Life Science Glovebox to run a biology experiment aboard the space station's Kibo module. Real NASA photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Biology" page — read by families in Union County, IL.Why I love living thingsA test model of the long magnetometer boom for the Europa Clipper spacecraft laid out for checkout at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Real NASA photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Magnets" page — read by families in Union County, IL.Why I love magnetsTechnicians in clean-room gear install guidance, navigation and control electronics boxes into the Juno spacecraft. Real NASA photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Electronics" page — read by families in Union County, IL.Why I love electronicsA 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 Union County, IL.Why I love electricity

Near Union County

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