Unit Plan
TED Talks

Ted: Ted Ed: Networking for the Networking Averse

For Students 9th - 10th
Networking can seem so hard- but not if you have the right advice. Lisa Green Chau outlines how being proactive and always saying yes can lead to future opportunities. [3:30]
Unit Plan
TED Talks

Ted: Ted Ed: Want to Be Happier? Stay in the Moment

For Students 9th - 10th
When are humans most happy? To gather data on this question, Matt Killingsworth built an app, Track Your Happiness, that let people report their feelings in real time. Among the surprising results: We're often happiest when we're lost in...
Unit Plan
TED Talks

Ted: Ted Ed: Why Do We See Illusions?

For Students 9th - 10th
Why can't our extremely complex eyes render simple optical illusions? Surprise, surprise- it comes back to the brain, which has only evolved to encounter natural stimuli. Mark Changizi explains how the brain reckons with optical...
Unit Plan
TED Talks

Ted: Ted Ed: Social Animal

For Students 9th - 10th
Tapping into the findings of his latest book, NYTimes columnist David Brooks unpacks new insights into human nature from the cognitive sciences- insights with massive implications for economics and politics as well as our own...
Unit Plan
TED Talks

Ted: Ted Ed: The Difference Between Classical and Operant Conditioning

For Students 9th - 10th
Peggy Andover explains how the brain can associate unrelated stimuli and responses, proved by Ivan Pavlov's famous 1890 experiments, and how reinforcement and punishment can result in changed behavior. [4:13]
Unit Plan
TED Talks

Ted: Ted Ed: The Importance of Focus

For Students 9th - 10th
How might focus help you succeed? Using examples of famous people from disparate fields, such as James Cameron, Quincy Jones, and Larry Page, Richard St. John suggests why focus is one of eight traits common in successful people. [5:54]
Unit Plan
TED Talks

Ted: Ted Ed: The World Needs All Kinds of Minds

For Students 9th - 10th
Temple Grandin, diagnosed with autism as a child, talks about how her mind works- sharing her ability to "think in pictures," which helps her solve problems that neurotypical brains might miss. She makes the case that the world needs...
Unit Plan
TED Talks

Ted: Ted Ed: What Adults Can Learn From Kids

For Students 9th - 10th
Child prodigy Adora Svitak says the world needs childish thinking: bold ideas, wild creativity, and especially optimism. Kids' big dreams deserve high expectations, she says, starting with grownups' willingness to learn from children as...
Unit Plan
TED Talks

Ted: Ted Ed: Write Your Story, Change History

For Students 9th - 10th
In this inspirational TEDYouth Talk, Brad Meltzer encourages us to dream big, work hard, and stay humble. [8:58]
Unit Plan
TED Talks

Ted: Ted Ed: What Aristotle and Joshua Bell Can Teach Us About Persuasion

For Students 9th - 10th
Imagine you are one of the world's greatest violin players, and you decide to conduct an experiment: play inside a subway station and see if anyone stops to appreciate when you are stripped of a concert hall and name recognition. Joshua...
Unit Plan
TED Talks

Ted: Ted Ed: What Is Color?

For Students 9th - 10th
Colm Kelleher describes the physics behind colors- why the colors we see are related to the period of motion and the frequency of waves. [3:09]
Unit Plan
TED Talks

Ted: Ted Ed: Is There a Difference Between Art and Craft?

For Students 9th - 10th
Where do we get our notions of art vs. craft? Laura Morelli traces the history of how we assign value to the visual arts. [5:30]
Unit Plan
TED Talks

Ted: Ted Ed: How Art Can Help You Analyze

For Students 9th - 10th
Amy E. Herman explains why art historical training can prepare people for real world investigation. [4:50]
Unit Plan
TED Talks

Ted: Ted Ed: How to Take a Great Picture

For Students 9th - 10th
For manual photography, the aperture, shutter speed, and ISO sensitivity can all be manipulated to get just the right amount of light. Carolina Molinari suggests the best exposure for an action photo, a stunning portrait, or a nighttime...
Unit Plan
TED Talks

Ted: Ted Ed: Making a Ted Ed Lesson: Two Ways to Animate Slam Poetry

For Students 9th - 10th
Slam poetry packs an emotional punch by using powerful verbal metaphors; animation can do the same using visual tools. TED-Ed animators show how two separate techniques- rotoscoping and more traditional hand-drawn animation- bring to...
Unit Plan
TED Talks

Ted: Ted Ed: Making a Ted Ed Lesson: Animating Zombies With Puppets

For Students 9th - 10th
What style of animation perfectly mimics the movement of zombies? Puppet animation allows for just the right amount of zombie-like stiff limbs and jerky stumbles. TED-Ed animators show how to bring a zombie to life through 2D puppet...
Unit Plan
TED Talks

Ted: Ted Ed: Animation Basics: The Optical Illusion of Motion

For Students 9th - 10th
How do animators make still images come to life? Are the images really moving, or are they merely an optical illusion? TED-Ed takes you behind the scenes to reveal the secret of motion in movies. [5:12]
Unit Plan
TED Talks

Ted: Ted Ed: Da Vinci's Vitruvian Man of Math

For Students 9th - 10th
What's so special about Leonardo da Vinci's Vitruvian Man? With arms outstretched, the man fills the irreconcilable spaces of a circle and a square- symbolizing the Renaissance-era belief in the mutable nature of humankind. James Earle...
Unit Plan
TED Talks

Ted: Ted Ed: Making a Ted Ed Lesson: Synesthesia and Playing Cards

For Students 9th - 10th
How can a pack of playing cards accurately explain the complicated and nuanced neurological condition, synesthesia? TED-Ed animators explain the process of creating an original animation from planning to fruition, including the special...
Unit Plan
TED Talks

Ted: Ted Ed: Dissecting Botticelli's Adoration of the Magi

For Students 9th - 10th
The scene of the three wise men offering gifts to a newborn Jesus was widely painted during the Renaissance era, so how did painter Sandro Botticelli create a version that's still well known today? James Earle describes who and what set...
Unit Plan
TED Talks

Ted: Ted Ed: Gyotaku: The Ancient Japanese Art of Printing Fish

For Students 9th - 10th
How did fishermen record their trophy catches before the invention of photography? In 19th century Japan, fishing boats were equipped with rice paper, sumi-e ink, and brushes in order to create gyotaku: elaborate rubbings of freshly...
Unit Plan
TED Talks

Ted: Ted Ed: A Cinematic Journey Through Visual Effects

For Students 9th - 10th
It's been 110 years since Georges Melies sent a spaceship slamming into the eye of the man on the moon. So how far have visual effects come since then? Working closely with the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Don Levy takes...
Unit Plan
TED Talks

Ted: Ted Ed: Animation Basics: Homemade Special Effects

For Students 9th - 10th
Animation is used everywhere to communicate big ideas-- in movies, television, and media. Do you ever stop and wonder about the magic of it all? And have you ever wanted to create your own special effects? TED-Ed animators show just how...
Unit Plan
TED Talks

Ted: Ted Ed: Weaving Narratives in Museum Galleries

For Students 9th - 10th
As the director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, Thomas P. Campbell thinks deeply about curating- not just selecting art objects, but placing them in a setting where the public can learn their stories. With glorious images,...