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Ellis Abel Learns.

In my own words · Modesto, CA

Why I love rivers

The branching channels of the Godavari River delta meeting the Bay of Bengal, photographed by the crew of space shuttle Endeavour. Real NASA photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Rivers" page — read by families in Modesto, CA.
The branching channels of the Godavari River delta meeting the Bay of Bengal, photographed by the crew of space shuttle Endeavour. NASA · Public domain
  • Water always finds the low way down.
  • It carries the land with it.
  • The river made this whole valley.

You can love rivers in Modesto.

What it really is

A river moves water and sediment downhill, and reshapes the land as it goes.

Three things to try today

  1. Find the nearest river and where it ends up.
  2. Pour water down a pile of sand and watch.
  3. Look for where it cuts and where it drops.
A USGS scientist stands in North Sylamore Creek in Arkansas filling sample bottles and measuring the stream water on site. Real USGS photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Rivers" page — read by families in Modesto, CA.
A USGS scientist stands in North Sylamore Creek in Arkansas filling sample bottles and measuring the stream water on site. U.S. Geological Survey · Public domain

For the grown-up reading this

This page is written to the child, not about them. If a kid in Modesto, CA loves rivers, here is the grown-up version of what they already feel. The Modesto, CA metro area has about 557,719 residents, ranking 106th in the country.

Erosion and deposition in a sandbox is the same physics as the Grand Canyon.

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 — Modesto, CA →

Love something else too

The dark ragged skyline of a Douglas fir forest at Point Reyes, California, silhouetted against a pale grey sky. Real USGS photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Forests" page — read by families in Modesto, CA.Why I love forestsA honeybee queen marked with a yellow dot on her back, surrounded by worker bees on the honeycomb. Real USGS photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Bees" page — read by families in Modesto, CA.Why I love beesA 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 Modesto, CA.Why I love farmsAn 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 Modesto, CA.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 Modesto, CA.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 Modesto, CA.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 Modesto, CA.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 Modesto, CA.Why I love living things

Near Modesto

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