TED-Ed Student Talks
The TED-Ed Student Talks program provides a free curriculum that supports students in identifying, developing and sharing their ideas in the form of short, TED-style talks. This curriculum is used in over 130 countries by educators in classrooms, schools, extra-curricular settings and educational organizations.
Fill out our application to provide us with more information about why you and your organization/school want to use the TED-Ed Student Talks program. We review applications and approve access to our curriculum three times a year. To learn more about the application process and the program, continue reading below.
Submit an application here
Why we help develop and amplify student voice
We believe there is a multitude of impact when students are asked about what they care about, are working as a group to develop ideas, and are invited to share those ideas in front of a larger audience. Through the program, students develop 21st century skills, deepen their student-student and student-educator relationships, and are better prepared to advocate for the problems of today and the future.
How the program works
TED-Ed Student Talks program provides a free activity-based curriculum for educators to use with either a group of students in a classroom, in an extra-curricular setting, or as a plug-in to an existing program at an youth/educational organization. When an educator’s application is approved, they receive access to a customized virtual, interactive learning platform in our TED Community space. This is where they will access curriculum resources and the ability to connect with our team and other educators using the program. We suggest each educator submit their own application in order to access the learning platform and resources.
How the application process works
We review and approve applications three times a year and approved educators are given access to our curriculum resources for 12 months from their approval date. The application is always open and we will approve applications on April 1, August 1 and December 1. You can choose one of these dates once you start the application. Applicants will share personal information and applicants must: be 21 years or older, submit the application in English, and either be working directly with or supporting educators who work with students ages 6-18 (not at the university level).
We ask applicants to categorize their organization under one of the following organization types:
- School (i.e. Nottingham High School)
- Group of schools (i.e. Elizabeth Forward School District)
- Nonprofit local chapter/location (i.e Boys and Girls Club El Paso)
- National/International nonprofit office (i.e. Ismaili Tariqah and Religious Education Board of Canada)
How you can participate in the program
Step 1
Think about when you would like to start the program. When you apply, you can select April 1, August 1 or December 1 as your start date to access our resources.
Step 2
Submit an application! It takes 5-10 minutes to elaborate on your organization’s details, your role as an educator, your students, and your plans to utilize the curriculum at your organization.
Step 3
During our application review, we may send you follow-up questions from our tededstudents@ted.com email address. We’ll send an email with the status of your application on either April 1, August 1 or December 1.
Step 1
Think about when you would like to start the program. When you apply, you can select April 1, August 1 or December 1 as your start date to access our resources.
Step 2
Submit an application! It takes 5-10 minutes to elaborate on your organization’s details, your role as an educator, your students, and your plans to utilize the curriculum at your organization.
Step 3
During our application review, we may send you follow-up questions from our tededstudents@ted.com email address. We’ll send an email with the status of your application on either April 1, August 1 or December 1.
Students develop 21st century skills through curriculum activities
Students share developed ideas with their communities and the world
Hear a variety of student voices from around the world and learn the ways you can celebrate your own students on and off the TED stage by becoming a TED-Ed Student Talks leader.
Frequently asked questions
Students work together to discuss and celebrate creative ideas. Use TED-Ed’s flexible public speaking curriculum as a guide and inspire tomorrow’s TED speakers and leaders with their own Idea Journals. Want to learn more? Dive into the details by downloading this information packet.
This program is designed to support groups of students ages 6-18, in high school/upper level school and below.
Once approved, educators gain access to our TED Community space with a guided learning experience specifically for TED-Ed Student Talks Leaders. This is a virtual, interactive learning platform with downloadable resources and space to connect with other Leaders. We provide a variety of resources: the main educator activity guidebook, a student idea journal, branding guidelines and logos, event guidelines, training videos, calls with our team and more.
Our current average group size is around 20-30 students. If you’d like to have a larger group of students (more than 50 students) meeting at once, we suggest you find a co-leader and someone who can help support during the meetings. There’s also a lot of opportunity to delegate some meeting responsibilities to students!
If you work in an administrative role of a school or organization and have visions of getting multiple groups of educators and students involved, you can indicate that in your application. Under “Organization Type”, you can indicate you are a larger organization, and then our team will follow up with you to help ensure all of the educators in your network gain access to our TED Community learning platform and so that we can link your network of schools together in our system.
Right now when you submit an application linked above, our resources, community space, community support and YouTube channel are in English only. If your students are not proficient with English, you could still download the materials, complete the activities in your native language, and host a student showcase just for your school/community. Additionally, we have recently launched a page to download materials in Spanish. If you are interested in receiving resources in Spanish, check out this page.