TED-Ed Club Connect Week gives students a virtual space to discuss ideas with other students around the world. Last week, more than 500 students in 29 countries met up in 25 video calls to talk, laugh — and dance! Check out some highlights from the week:

IDEAS: Students shared their ideas for TED-Ed Club Talks, such as:

• How the whole world can — and should — create a “culture of readers”
• Why jungle cat extinction puts us in danger, too
• Why we should spend more time exploring oceans, not space
• What women’s soccer has to teach us about global gender equity

More than 97 schools participated in the October 2015 TED-Ed Club Connect Week. On every video call, student ideas ruled. In this one, students exchange ideas from TED-Ed Clubs in the USA (California) and Pakistan.

CULTURAL EXCHANGE: Students asked questions about each other’s countries, like:

• Do you use huskies to pull your sleds in Canada? (Answer: not in Toronto. But in some places far north.)
• Why do you think so many Muslims are stereotyped? (Answer: the media doesn’t give us a chance to really learn about the faith and its believers.)
• In Greece, do you cook everything in olive oil? (Answer: yes. Yes we do.)
• If you live in Kansas, does everyone ask you about The Wizard of Oz? (Answer, again: yes. Just…yes.)

Students led the conversations: All we did was give them a virtual space to gather, pass along instructions to ask each other questions, and get out of their way. In this video call, TED-Ed Clubs start dancing in UAE, Malaysia, and the Philippines.

FUN: TED-Ed Club Members LOVE to dance!

• Check out a few of their dance moves in the video below. In this video call, TED-Ed Clubs are dancing in the USA (South Carolina; Georgia), and Canada (Ontario).:

We are thrilled about the way this Connect Week went, and we can’t wait to find more opportunities to put all these brilliant minds together and see what world-changing ideas they come up with! Stay tuned for more Connect Week excitement in the months ahead.

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.