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Ellis Abel Learns.

In my own words · Des Moines, IA

Why I love sharks

A 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 Des Moines, IA.
A blacktip reef shark swims just under the sunlit surface, above a head of coral, at Palmyra Atoll National Wildlife Refuge in the Pacific Ocean. Kevin Lafferty, USGS · Public domain
  • They were here before trees were.
  • They can feel electricity in the water.
  • Most of them are nothing like the movies.

You can love sharks in Des Moines.

What it really is

Sharks sense electric fields, and their body plan is older than trees.

Three things to try today

  1. Find out how long sharks have existed.
  2. Compare that to trees.
  3. Find one shark fact the movies got wrong.
A USGS biological science technician in purple gloves implants an acoustic tracking tag into a juvenile salmon on a river bank. Real USGS photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Sharks" page — read by families in Des Moines, IA.
A USGS biological science technician in purple gloves implants an acoustic tracking tag into a juvenile salmon on a river bank. Ryan Tomka, USGS · Public domain

For the grown-up reading this

A child in Des Moines, IA who loves sharks is not unusual. A child in Des Moines, IA who is told that loving sharks is unusual — that is the problem. The Des Moines–West Des Moines, IA metro area has about 758,539 residents, ranking 82nd in the country.

Sharks predate trees by roughly a hundred million years. It resets a child's sense of deep time.

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 — Des Moines, IA →

Love something else too

Astronaut 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 Des Moines, IA.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 Des Moines, IA.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 Des Moines, IA.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 Des Moines, IA.Why I love electricityTwo 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 Des Moines, IA.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 Des Moines, IA.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 Des Moines, IA.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 Des Moines, IA.Why I love maps

Near Des Moines

Why I love sharks, everywhere in the US · All things to love · STEM jobs you could do · Summer camps in Des Moines