Skip to content
Ellis Abel Learns.

In my own words · Huntsville, AL

Why I love maps

A 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 Huntsville, AL.
A USGS cartographer bends over a light table, scribing contour lines by hand onto a topographic map separation. U.S. Geological Survey · Public domain
  • Somebody had to go and measure all of this.
  • Flat paper for a round world means something gets stretched.
  • I can find exactly where I am.

You can love maps in Huntsville.

What it really is

A map is a measured model of a place, and every map distorts something.

Three things to try today

  1. Draw a map of your street from memory.
  2. Walk it and fix what is wrong.
  3. Add something no other map has.
A 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 Huntsville, AL.
A USGS cartographer bends over a light table, scribing contour lines by hand onto a topographic map separation. U.S. Geological Survey · Public domain

For the grown-up reading this

A child in Huntsville, AL who loves maps is not unusual. A child in Huntsville, AL who is told that loving maps is unusual — that is the problem. The Huntsville, AL metro area has about 556,444 residents, ranking 107th in the country.

Every projection lies about something. Which lie you accept is a design decision.

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 — Huntsville, AL →

Love something else too

A 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 Huntsville, AL.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 Huntsville, AL.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 Huntsville, AL.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 Huntsville, AL.Why I love carsA humpback whale launching most of its body out of the ocean in a breach, with spray flying off its flippers. Real USGS photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Whales" page — read by families in Huntsville, AL.Why I love whalesA bee crawling over the yellow centre of a wildflower while pollinating it on Kennedy Space Center property. Real NASA photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Insects" page — read by families in Huntsville, AL.Why I love bugsA scientist looks through a microscope at human breast cancer cells in a cell bioassay laboratory, with an automated liquid handling robot behind her. Real USGS photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Medicine" page — read by families in Huntsville, AL.Why I love doctorsAstronaut Kate Rubins holds a handheld DNA sequencer while running a gene sequencing experiment aboard the space station. Real NASA photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Genetics" page — read by families in Huntsville, AL.Why I love DNA

Near Huntsville

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