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Ellis Abel Learns.

In my own words · Norfolk, VA

Why I love technology

A wide-angle view of the flight control room of NASA's Mission Control Center, filled with rows of consoles and display screens. Real NASA photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Technology" page — read by families in Norfolk, VA.
A wide-angle view of the flight control room of NASA's Mission Control Center, filled with rows of consoles and display screens. NASA · Public domain
  • Someone made this. That means I could make one too.
  • Every button was a choice a person made.
  • When it breaks, there is a reason. I can find the reason.

You can love technology in Norfolk.

What it really is

Technology is a tool somebody built on purpose to solve a problem.

Three things to try today

  1. Pick one thing in your house and ask what problem it solves.
  2. Find the part that would break first.
  3. Draw a better version.
Technicians in white clean-room 'bunny suits' begin work on the Dawn spacecraft inside a payload processing clean room. Real NASA photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Technology" page — read by families in Norfolk, VA.
Technicians in white clean-room 'bunny suits' begin work on the Dawn spacecraft inside a payload processing clean room. NASA · Public domain

For the grown-up reading this

Nobody has to talk a child into liking technology. They have to not talk them out of it. Norfolk is one of the cities the Virginia Beach–Norfolk–Newport News, VA-NC metro area is officially named after.

Teach the machine as a made thing, not a magic thing. Made things can be understood.

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 — Norfolk, VA →

Love something else too

Long rows of black cabinets housing the Discover supercomputer at the NASA Center for Climate Simulation. Real NASA photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Computers" page — read by families in Norfolk, VA.Why I love computersTwo small AstroPi Raspberry Pi computers with camera modules floating in the Columbus laboratory of the space station. Real NASA photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Coding" page — read by families in Norfolk, VA.Why I love codingA close-up of one row of the Discover supercomputer, showing about 2,000 processors stacked in cabinets with cabling. Real NASA photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Data" page — read by families in Norfolk, VA.Why I love dataThe Robonaut 2 humanoid robot, with a gold-visored head and two jointed arms, mounted inside the Destiny laboratory of the space station. Real NASA photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Robotics" page — read by families in Norfolk, VA.Why I love robotsThe tracked crawler-transporter carries a mobile launcher platform and twin solid rocket boosters along the crawlerway toward Launch Pad 39A. Real NASA photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Engineering" page — read by families in Norfolk, VA.Why I love engineeringThe International Space Station with its newly attached Destiny laboratory, photographed from space shuttle Atlantis above a cloud-covered Earth. Real NASA photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Space" page — read by families in Norfolk, VA.Why I love spaceA Hubble Space Telescope view of the faint blue spiral galaxy NGC 3274 surrounded by scattered stars on a black background. Real NASA photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Astronomy" page — read by families in Norfolk, VA.Why I love starsA Rocket Lab Electron rocket lifts off from its launch pad, trailing a bright orange exhaust plume. Real NASA photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Rockets" page — read by families in Norfolk, VA.Why I love rockets

Near Norfolk

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