“I hope to be exposed to a better platform of sharing ideas and innovation through TED because I’ve watched a lot of videos of theirs and I see all of these people coming up with new techniques to help the world progress so I want to contribute to that.”  

This was junior Divyansh Shah’s response when I asked, “why did you decide to join the BHS TED-Ed Club?” This past fall, Burlington High School was one of 125 schools selected to participate in the TED-Ed Club pilot program. The experience for the five students who were a part of the pilot was incredible, especially for BHS juniors Manas and Ansh who are both passionate about science and medicine and whose talks were recently featured on the TED-Ed Club blog! Additionally, TJ Horgan’s talk was highlighted in a recent Education World article. All five members of the pilot, along with seven new members, are excited that BHS has been approved as an official TED-Ed Club. The students are eager to delve into topics they are passionate about through conducting independent research and they are excited to have the opportunity to learn how to articulate their ideas and improve their public speaking skills through developing TED-like presentations.

So far, we’ve had two meetings and members have spent some time getting to know each other, discussing why they joined the club, what they hope to gain as a result of their participation, and ideas they currently have which may turn out to be the basis of their final presentations. I continue to be in awe of my students, as I was during the pilot experience, and the ideas they want to share with the world. Some of the ideas BHS TED-Ed Club members have for their talks include: the turmoil of the Egyptian government, robotic surgeries, space and time travel, racial objectification in schools, obesity in America, bio-technologies, the intricacies of human relationships, the dementia crisis, and the causes of stage fright.  It is an honor to be the facilitator of this club, as it epitomizes passion-driven, self-directed learning. I’m proud to introduce the members of the BHS TED-Ed Club and hope you will spend a few minutes learning more about them and what they hope to share with the world.