At TED-Ed, we’re passionate about sharing vibrant, diverse, and meaningful student voices with the world. Since 2014, thousands of student groups across the globe have been developing and sharing their ideas using our free idea presentation literacy materials. And, in these last few years, we (the TED-Ed team) have learned SO much about what students and educators really need on the journey toward that best possible Talk.

Central to the program of course are the TED-Ed Student Talks materials, designed to help students more fully realize and develop the core ideas they’ll share with the world.

Behold: the wonderfully colorful Guidebook, Idea Journal, and Curriculum Standards packet!

The Guidebook:

The main idea: This is your road map for navigating a group of students through the process of developing and sharing their TED-Ed Student Talks. It has specific guidelines and ideas on how to structure your sessions, but leaves room for creativity so you can adapt meetings to fit your group!

Supporting details: The sessions (or, as we call them, “Explorations”) are broken into 3 phases: Discover, Develop and Share. You can see the basic arc of the program here. The activities in each Exploration offer videos to watch, discussion prompts, partner and group work, and individual reflection time.

Included are activities for identifying and prioritizing good ideas, a model that trains students to effectively give and receive feedback, extra help building throughlines, and “Talk Tools” that teach storyboarding and presentation skills like voice and presence.

The Idea Journal:

The main idea: This journal is a safe and creative space for every speaker to explore and develop; it is a colorful, fun and personal way to track the development of your idea.

Supporting details: Students will use this journal as they complete Explorations in the Guidebook. The sections of the journal correspond to various activities in the Guidebook and offer students a place to brainstorm, draft ideas, take notes, and build on their script.

This should feel like a journal. There are space to draw, to draft, to reflect, to check items off your to-do list, and to keep track of your amazing progress!

The Curriculum Standards Packet:

The main idea: We created this packet to help illustrate the ways in which the TED-Ed Student Talks program aligns with national and international educational standards used by many schools in our global community!

Supporting details: If you are an educator using these materials in your classroom, you can easily track the standards covered by each step in the process. This document also clearly outlines the skills students will develop as they complete the program.

We’ve included Common Core standards, Cambridge Global Perspectives Program standards, ISTE standards for Students, and International Baccalaureate Learner Profile Standards.

So how can you use these materials?

If you aren’t registered with us yet, submit your registration here to access our Resource Library and download the free materials. You have a few options for how to use these materials:

• In a classroom: as a group of students in a class, led by a teacher.

• In a Club: as a group of students in an after-school setting, led by an adult educator.

• As part of another youth/education program: as an addition to an existing program—for groups of students who are part of programs run by our collaborative partners.

If you are currently a registered TED-Ed Student Talk Leader, visit your Resource Library, and please let us know what you think!

Photo: Ryan Lash

Writing a college admissions essay (or any essay for that matter) can be grueling. BUT—did you know that once you’ve written that essay, you’re halfway to giving a TED-style Talk? So why not register with The TED-Ed Student Talks Program to complete the process, and share your ideas with the world!

If you’re a high schooler wrapping up your college admissions essay or a student working on one of many essay assignments for class, writing is probably a regular part of your school workload. Any time you write an essay, you need to discover, develop, and share an idea clearly—and these are actually the building blocks to giving a TED-style Talk. So whether you’re workshopping edits for your admissions essay, finalizing a paper for science class, or browsing through your collected essays from years passed—you’re ready to take that extra step and transform the written word into the spoken.

Here’s what you’ve already accomplished by writing your essay:

1. You identified and explored an idea which will be the focus of your Talk.

2. You developed a throughline: your main point or argument, the magnet to which all your points are drawn (your Talk’s connecting thread).

3. You researched and fact-checked the claims which will support your talking points.

4. You outlined an introduction, a body, and a conclusion that can be mirrored in your Talk arc.

5. You combined the above elements into a cohesive whole which will provide the blueprint for your Talk.

With your essay in hand, you have the essential ingredients needed to actualize your Talk. Remember: you can accomplish things with the spoken word that you can’t with the written. You’ll sense this just by reading your essay out loud. Doesn’t this feel different from reading your essay in silence? Your job now is akin to a script editor turning a silent film into a Talkie, and both the TED-Ed screen and stage are waiting for you.

Here’s why you should turn your essay into a Talk:

1. Your idea will be made available globally on our TED-Ed Student Talks Youtube Channel and can affect those you’ve never even met.

2. You’ll take your idea further by expanding upon it. There are no character limits with Talks so your creativity can run wild.

3. You’ll enhance your idea with visuals: slides, video clips, photos, and animations…images rejoice!

4. You’ll fine-tune your public speaking skills and practice the craft (and joys!) of presenting.

5. You’ll decide who you’re speaking to: your Talk doesn’t have to be addressed to a teacher or an admissions committee, instead you get to choose your audience.

The alchemy of turning writing into speech is at your fingertips—your Talk sits hidden in your essay and it’s awaiting to be unearthed. And while there are many exciting benefits to carving a Talk out of your essay, they all have one thing in common: you get to make the most of your written efforts by enriching, informing, and enlivening them.

So register with the TED-Ed Student Talks Program and do more with what you’ve already done: join us with a group or on your own! And maybe soon you’ll be flipping the script and transforming your TED-style Talk back into a school essay.

I grew up in love with stories. There were days when I’d refuse to go outside or come to dinner because I had my nose in a book, or was trying to write one. My earliest dreams and aspirations came from the characters I read about. But I only thought about their strengths and not about their weaknesses. So when I started presenting at local schools about reading and writing, I built an impossible definition of the character I should play. I wanted to be the “good teacher” — knowledgeable, eloquent and invulnerable. I thought this was the only way to be inspiring.

Be perfect, I told myself while spinning stories on a beat-up laptop with eager elementary school students, because everyone’s watching.

This desire was ironic because I told those students time after time, “Make your characters three-dimensional. Give them strengths and weaknesses.” Yet the very flaws I asked students to make transparent in the pages they wrote, I tried to hide in my own character.

After my TED Talk, I turned 13. I got to hear words like “You’re an inspiration” and “I look up to you.” I traveled to Mexico, France, Switzerland, India, and Sri Lanka — over the course of two months — just for speaking engagements. By anyone’s standards, I was on top of the world. Yet in less than two years, I had filled two journals. Almost every entry started with the words, “I feel sad today.”

It was only after this long sadness had ebbed, passing with an uncharacteristic gentleness, that I felt like I could tell anyone else. I turned 14, and I confessed — about the crying, the journaling, the emptiness — to my best friend.

“Why didn’t you say anything before?” she asked, aghast. A part of me was surprised, as if I had expected a reprimand for a different thing — for having the long sadness, not for staying silent.

I resolved not to stay silent anymore. I turned 15, and I slowly expanded the number of people that I told about who I was when cameras were off and my door was closed. I started writing about small failings and insecurities on my blog. One post — about my poor performance on the SAT’s math section — earned me a then-boyfriend’s horror, a summer of precalc tutoring — and an outpouring of support from friends. Friends shared my post out on their Facebook walls and added their own stories of less-than-stellar academic performance. “None of us have it all figured out,” I wrote in that blog post, adding, “You’re not alone. You never have been.”

Around the world, we’ve seen a number of TED-Ed Club members share their own stories about depression and difficult times.

If you’re working on a TED-Ed Club talk about depression, below are some helpful links on the topic:

1. World Suicide Prevention Day is September 10. Read suicide prevention tips for kids and teens, watch Kevin Briggs’ TED Talk: The bridge between suicide and life, learn the warning signs and explore the link to depression. The National Suicide Prevention Hotline is 1-800-273-TALK.
2. What is depression exactly, and what are some causes and solutions? Find a general overview of the scientific and social elements of depression on ASAP Science and Crash Course, watch Andrew Solomon’s TED Talk: Depression, the secret we share, and take the TED-Ed Lesson: A brief history of melancholy.
3. If you’re interested in the biological and public health side of mood disorders, you can research symptoms and prevalence of depression (and find comprehensive mental health statistics) using information from the National Institutes of Health. If you’re interested in how to practice emotional first aid, read this short TED article.
4. The British actor and comedian Stephen Fry wrote of depression, “It’s not all bad. Heightened self-consciousness, apartness, an inability to join in, physical shame and self-loathing—they are not all bad. Those devils have been my angels. Without them I would never have disappeared into language, literature, the mind, laughter and all the mad intensities that made and unmade me.” You can explore the link between depression and creativity in this New York Times piece, “Depression’s Upside.”
5. To see two students’ powerful testaments of personal experiences with depression, watch slam poetry performances like “Explaining My Depression to My Mother” and “Living With Depression.”

Whether you choose to speak about depression on the societal, personal or even molecular level, know that you are shedding light on an important topic when you present your ideas to others with confidence. Courage is contagious, and building a society that is more open and less judgmental begins when you start speaking up.

More than 10,000 students are now sharing and presenting their ideas in TED-Ed Clubs around the world. Interested in starting a TED-Ed Club at your school? Find out more.

Are teenagers today prepared for life after school? Or are American students too coddled? Windsor High School student Aliezah Hulett ponders these questions in her TED-Ed Club talk, “Preparing Students for the Real World.” During the talk, she advocates for schools to teach more real-life skills to their students, including a basic understanding of the metric system and a more realistic approach to sex education. Read on for an interview with Aliezah about the gap between what we learn in school vs. what we need in later life.

There’s a lot of discussion about modern youth being supposedly less ready for adulthood than their parents’ generation. Do you think that today’s teenagers are less prepared for the real world than ever before? If so, why?

Teenagers today are the perfect example of what can happen if parents never challenge their children to go above and beyond. They hand everything to their kids. It used to be that you’d be extremely privileged if you got to use your parents’ old beatup car once you turned sixteen. If you wanted something else, you would get a job and pay for it yourself because it was triggering a sense of responsibility. Nowadays, I see 16-year-olds with trucks and Priuses straight off the lot. This causes teenagers to be less prepared for the real world than ever before. A large chunk of this is due to parents coddling their children. According to this interesting article from The Guardian, “more than a quarter of 20 to 34 year olds are still living with their parents according to new statistics — the highest proportion since 1996.”

Do schools have a responsibility to fill in the gaps when parents don’t educate their children about basics? 

The school system and parents should be working together to raise educated students. Schools should be accountable for instructing students to be knowledgeable about the world around them, even when the parents slack off. It should be a joint effort between parent and educator to train the next generation of children to be independent and prepared for what’s ahead.

Some educators might be concerned that teaching lessons around more real-world subject matter would take time away from traditional topics like calculus or Shakespeare. Do you see value in traditional topics?

Traditional topics such as calculus and Shakespeare should not be neglected, but teachers should be able to ask their class, “Now, how can we use this lesson outside of the classroom?” Every class should be able to draw out a moral that students can leave with daily. For example, a possible moral for Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet could be to not be swept up in emotions and carry out such rash actions.

Right now, do you think most of your peers are capable of handling life after high school and college?

If my peers were to be thrown into the real world, I don’t think that they would know how to handle themselves. There’s a sense of responsibility and maturity that come from having a job. When someone puts their head down to achieve their goals by themselves, as an independent adult, their outcome will reflect what they learned in both high school and college. These include how to sew a button or how to use a plunger!

You spoke about the need for a pragmatic approach to sex education in schools. How would you respond to those who say students shouldn’t be learning about sex at all in school?

Those who think that teenagers shouldn’t be taught about sex in school are trying to shield children from learning about the outside world. In high school, college, and the many years after, sex is a real thing. I agree that abstinence is the only way to fully prevent teen pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases among youth, but what happens when they do decide to have sex? The answer is that they could end up getting pregnant and spreading STDs because they may not know how to properly address these types of situations. This is in no way promoting sex, but instead teaching tomorrow’s future about the truth, and what may arise in their future. By providing students with knowledge of how to properly go about the physical and mental components of sex, we are raising educated adolescents.

If you had the opportunity to design a school from the ground up, how might its classes be different from classes in existing schools?

If I got to design my own school, the classes that students would take would be based on two main components: what students are interested in, and what students will need for their lives after graduating. Sometimes, there are classes that we don’t necessarily like but are required to take because they teach things that are needed out there in the real world, or provide a better basis for the rest of a child’s learning career. However, it is proven that when a child is enjoying the class, they are more likely to absorb the information. If there is a particular subject or teaching style that a student likes, that’s information to act on.

More than 10,000 students are now sharing and presenting their ideas in TED-Ed Clubs around the world. Interested in starting a TED-Ed Club at your school? Find out more.

Hilliard Weaver Middle School student Ayat Bhutta notices prejudice against Muslims frequently, both in her own life and on the news. Significant events like the vandalism of mosques around America and the shootings in Chapel Hill made her want to speak out. To learn more about Bhutta’s perspective, take a look at her final TED-Ed Club talk. We asked her some questions about misconceptions she sees in the media and how to effectively combat ignorance. 

Have you or your friends or family members had personal experiences with people making negative assumptions about you because of your faith?

I personally have to deal with people making assumptions about me all the time whether at school or when I’m volunteering at the library or even when I’m walking down the street because of the fact that I wear a hijab (head scarf), which links me with Islam. This makes people think I’m oppressed or I have some kind of a weapon under my scarf. Misconceptions about Islam include: Muslims are terrorists, all Arabs are Muslim and Muslim women are oppressed. 

You said “We have to band together and…show what Muslims actually look like.” What are some of the Muslim stories you would like to see in the media?

I’d like to see stories in the news about Muslim youth and how they’re impacting the environment around them. Additionally, I’d like to see stories about the positive impact of all Muslims on society, rather than the horrific stories about us in the news. For example—how Muslims are volunteering their time and money for the betterment of society; Muslims in soup kitchens; Muslims in disaster recovery efforts after tornados and floods; or how Muslim students are among the brightest in our nation and the many positive accomplishments they make in our society.

Do you think that social media and the hashtag “#MuslimLivesMatter” are effective tools to fight prejudice?

The hashtag #MuslimLivesMatter is an effective tool in fighting prejudice because it brings the Muslim community closer together. This is resulting in a community response and greater societal awareness of these issues, whether sending letters or posting pictures or even speaking out like I did. Social media is also a great way to fight prejudice because what gets posted on social media creates awareness and gets attention, so if we use social media to our advantage we could create pages and hashtags to get mainstream news attention, and then do something valuable with that attention.

Do you think that better education will eradicate Islamophobia, or is it more than just a problem of ignorance?

Islam comes from the Arabic root word Aslama, which means “to surrender,” and the Arabic word Salam, which comes from the same root word and means peace. Therefore Islam is a religion of surrendering peace; however the literal translation of Islam is submission; submission of our base desires to the will of God. I said that “Islam means peace….” in my video because Islam is a religion that advises, promotes and emphases peace as a goal to the eventual submitting of our wills to God. I believe that better education will help eradicate Islamophobia, but it is also a problem of more than just ignorance. In some cases it is intermingled with politics, biases and issues being taken out of context.

However, I am optimistic that the world will be more tolerant in the future. Historically, it seems that we as a human race undergo periods of intolerance, such as the Spanish Inquisition and witch hunts, the barbaric treatment of Jews in Europe, and now the intolerance and fear-mongering towards Islam. I would like to think that our nation would too in time be more tolerant and accepting of each other. As of now, I think that we need more people speaking up for Islam and educating others before anything changes.

More than 10,000 students are now sharing and presenting their ideas in TED-Ed Clubs around the world. Interested in starting a TED-Ed Club at your school? Find out more.

Will future generations see the human genome as the end point for humanity — or just the beginning? This ethical quandary isn’t just the stuff of science fiction. Scientists already have the ability to create glow-in-the-dark pigs using jellyfish DNA. As human gene-editing technology becomes cheaper and easier over time, can genetically modified humans really be that far behind?

In her TED-Ed Club talk, Katherine Malone explores the idea of human enhancement. Below, she answers questions about this controversial topic — and speaks her mind on the ethics around boosting human immunity and abilities through cross-species grafts.

In modern medicine, what are some of the current ways that animals impact humans, and vice versa?

Pigs tend to be used for a lot of modern medicines. Chopped pig pancreas is fed to cystic fibrosis patients as a means of supplying enzymes (somewhat gross, but necessary). “Super-pigs” have been developed to help try and provide hearts for heart transplants, since human ones are in short supply. And many traditional medicines are animal-based; it’s one of the main reasons that tigers and rhinoceroses are endangered.

What does research suggest about the future possibility of human enhancement using animal DNA?

Genetic science has advanced so much and so quickly since the beginning of the 2000s that in 20 years I believe we will have made some big progress — perhaps to the point where animal-human grafting is actually a thing. Not just organ transplants, but genetic transplants that boost immunity. For example, there are some diseases that animals tend not to get, but humans do.

You end your TED-Ed Club talk with, “In all likelihood, we could do it; it is now your duty to think about whether we should do it.” What’s your personal opinion?

Animal-human grafting is a very controversial subject, as most things related to animals are. A lot of people would be concerned about the impact on both humans and animals. Plus, the whole process will be incredibly expensive, especially when it first comes out. But my personal opinion is that we should go for it. Yes, there are problems. But there have been problems and complications with everything new that humans have done. And we could explore worse ideas.

The possibilities that come with grafting DNA are almost endless. If it works, the benefits could far outweigh the problems that people might have with the idea. And in the end, I believe that it could be totally worth it.

More than 10,000 students are now sharing and presenting their ideas in TED-Ed Clubs around the world. Interested in starting a TED-Ed Club at your school? Find out more.

Great TED Talks — and TED-Ed Student Talks — can be as compelling as any fictional tale. As a student when I gave my TED Talk, I thought a lot about how to use narrative writing strategies for powerful presentations. Below are 3 storytelling tips for your next talk, plus some inspiration from other TED speakers:

1. Make conflicts and obstacles central to the narrative.

Without conflicts and obstacles, stories lack uncertainty and suspense. Ask yourself: who or what do I want to defeat? How do I get the audience on my side? Your conflicts and obstacles don’t need to have the fate of the world in the balance. They can be much more personal. In the TED Talk “My stroke of insight,” Jill Bolte Taylor introduced her conflict this way: “On the morning of December 10, 1996, I woke up to discover that I had a brain disorder of my own. A blood vessel exploded in the left half of my brain. And in the course of four hours, I watched my brain completely deteriorate in its ability to process all information. On the morning of the hemorrhage, I could not walk, talk, read, write or recall any of my life. I essentially became an infant in a woman’s body.” Starting with this obstacle hooks viewers immediately and makes us want to know the outcome of her story. She could have chosen not to make this obstacle central to her story, and bombarded the audience with de-personalized information about neuroscience. Instead, she created tension and suspense, immediately grabbing viewers’ attention and making us root for her. [To learn more about the narrative power of a great introduction, watch this TED-Ed Animation.]

2. Show us the origin story of why you care about this idea.

Imagine a movie that starts with drivers in neon-colored sports cars, recklessly racing down a street crowded with vendors and shoppers in a night bazaar. The race culminates in a giant explosion, then a firefight, then hand-to-hand combat…and still zero dialogue, still absolutely no explanation of why it all starts. This movie doesn’t exist, because it wouldn’t have an audience. All books and movies eventually give you some kind of origin story that answers the question, “Why does [insert character here] care?” Justice. Power. Love. The list goes on.

Audiences will be skeptical that you just woke up one day and decided to care about something out of nowhere; you need to tell them the origin story of your concern. Their emotional investment starts with your emotional investment. For instance, Nobel Prize winner and TED speaker Kailash Satyarthi said, “All my best ideas were born of anger.” He told the story of seeing children sold into slavery, friends leaving school because of poverty, and low-caste members of his community ostracized. We’re often told to quell emotions like sadness or outrage, for fear that they appear unprofessional or extreme, but these emotions can help provoke compassion, empathy and action. Satyarthi uses his origin story to show the depth of his passion — and anger — about an important issue.

3. Build three-dimensional characters who are unafraid to be vulnerable. 

TEDxTeen speaker Tavi Gevinson said in her talk, “The flaws are the key. What makes a strong female character is a character who has weaknesses, who has flaws, who is maybe not immediately likable, but eventually relatable.” Tavi’s definition of a strong female character can be generalized to all characters, regardless of gender. When was the last time you read a book or watched a movie about a main character who was absolutely perfect? From virtuous figures in mythology to superheroes in modern-day comic books, the people we admire have their weaknesses. Our flaws are markers of our shared humanity. If you want your audience to care about you and be interested in what you have to say, your audience needs to see you as a relatable protagonist.

That means telling them you’re not perfect. Explore how your vulnerabilities are relevant to what you want to say. The New York Times’ 36 Questions can expose vulnerabilities. Try writing down some answers and then consider ways to make relevant ones central to your talk. Admittedly, it can be hard to get so personal out of fear of embarrassment. We are most vulnerable when our fears, secrets and identities are deemed “inappropriate” for public discussion. As children, we quickly learn not to talk about certain things — sexuality, mental illness, race, wealth and poverty, or religion. Yet these subjects deeply affect our lives. So as much as you can, throw societal stigmas out the window and start with a blank page. In “How the worst moments in our lives make us who we are,” TED speaker Andrew Solomon said, “When we’re ashamed, we can’t tell our stories, and stories are the foundation of identity.” In “Depression, the secret we share,” he said, “A lot of people said, when I chose to write about my depression, that it must be very difficult to be out of that closet, to have people know. They said, ‘Do people talk to you differently?’ I said, ‘Yes, people talk to me differently. They talk to me differently insofar as they start telling me about their experience, or their sister’s experience, or their friend’s experience. Things are different because now I know that depression is the family secret that everyone has.’” Depression is not the only “family secret that everyone has.” When you speak about one of yours, you free others from the cage of silence and stigma. In this way, building three-dimensional characters with strengths and weaknesses doesn’t just make a good talk; it makes a better world.

Speakers like Jill Bolte Taylor, Kailash Satyarthi, Tavi Gevinson and Andrew Solomon are incredible people who live interesting lives. You might think, “But I don’t have one life-changing event or condition. I don’t have a Nobel Prize (or even a high school diploma).” Ultimately, your value as the protagonist of your story doesn’t come from single points in time or line items on a resumé. It comes from the purity of your truth and the clarity of your idea — and your confidence that you have a story worth telling. Dave Isay, founder of StoryCorps and winner of the 2015 TED Prize, urged us to embrace the “poetry, wisdom and grace that can be found in the words of people all around us.” Never forget that you, too, are one of those people.

More than 10,000 students are now sharing and presenting their ideas through the TED-Ed Student Talks Program around the world. Interested in joining the program? Find out more.