Instead of simply coloring with crayons, imagine a drawing session with special paper and pens that let you create light-up circuits out of doodles. Or instead of old-fashioned construction paper cut-outs, creating a pop-up book with working lights.

In this talk from TEDYouth 2011, electrical engineer Leah Buechley describes how she and her team at the MIT Media Lab often feel bored by the slow, expensive process of designing circuit boards, that almost always come out looking the same. Their idea? To make designing electronics more like child’s play. In this talk, Buechley shares two projects that make this concept a reality, showing how drawn squiggles can be connected into a playable musical instrument, and how a cut-out cityscape can glow and twinkle like a real skyline.

To see demonstrations of these projects, watch this exciting talk. And after the jump, view three more talks from those who’ve aimed to make electronic design lots more fun.

May these talks inspire you not to miss TEDYouth this coming Saturday, November 17, where Carl Zimmer will reveal a parasite that turns cockroaches into zombies, NASA flight director Bobak Ferdowsi will share how he got a two ton machine to Mars and Jay-Z’s music producer, Young Guru, will talk about the future of hip hop. Even if you aren’t registered for the conference, you can still take part in the fun as the event will be fully livestreamed in English, Spanish and Arabic. (Sign up for a livestream reminder notification here.) At the same time, more than 100 TEDxYouthDay events will be taking place in 42 countries around the globe this weekend. View those events, as well as the 26 of them that will be livestreaming, through the TEDxYouthDay website >>

Ayah Bdeir: Building blocks that blink, beep and teach
TED Fellow Ayah Bdeir introduced us to the next generation of LEGOs at TED2012. Called littleBits, these interchangeable blocks contain transistors that let kids build projects that buzz, blink, dim, pulse and sense — all while learning about programming at the same time.

On November 13 — just a weeks after Hurricane Sandy left downtown Manhattan without electricity — Bdeir held a workshop called “Why did the lights go out?” There, kids were invited to create light-up models of New York City. Bdeir tells the TED Blog, “LittleBits’ mission is to make people understand electronics and electricity in a world that is governed by it. For us, the hurricane was a reminder of how dependent we are on electrical systems, and how little most of us understand how they work. In the workshop we demonstrated how electricity connects to our everyday life — in both simple and extremely dramatic ways — and why Sandy made us lose power.“

Kate Hartman: The art of wearable communication
Kate Hartman is both an artist and technologist, and her projects explore the bounds of human communication. What does that mean, exactly? Well, she’s created a hat that lets the wearer talk to themselves and an inflatable heart that shows the outside world what the wearer is feeling inside.

Neil Harbisson: I listen to color
Artist Neil Harbisson wears an electronic eye. Born with a visual condition called achromatopsia, which only lets him see shades of grey, this eye converts the colors of the world into sounds, allowing him to hear them. In this talk from TEDGlobal 2012, Harbisson explains how this piece of electronic equipment has made going to the supermarket like strolling through a nightclub.

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Want to see Buechley’s cut-out cityscape that glows? Below, a picture.

At TED, we’re constantly impressed by the accomplishments of young innovators. With talks like Adora Svitak’s “What adults can learn from kids,” 12-year-old Amy O’Toole assisting Beau Lotto in “Science is for everyone: kids included,” and Thomas Suarez, who was developing apps before he could drive, we can’t help but be hopeful for the future. That is why we are thrilled to announce the third anniversary of TEDxYouthDay, a series of independently-organized TEDx events designed to empower and inspire teens and kids worldwide.

This Saturday and Sunday more than 100 TEDx events will participate in TEDxYouthDay, with youth conferences going down in 42 countries — including Egypt, Spain, India, Hong Kong, Brazil, Taiwan and the United States. A whopping 26 of these TEDxYouthDay events will be livestreamed through the TEDxYouthDay website. Additionally, more than 100 youth leaders — some as young as 11-years-old – have volunteered to report on these events, and will be writing, photographing and tweeting from events across the globe. You can follow their reporting on Twitter live on the 17th and 18th by following the hashtag #TEDxYouth.

TED will also be participating in the fun with TEDYouth in New York City, a free, day-long event for high school students. More than 20 scientists, designers, technologists, explorers, artists and performers will dazzle participants with mind-shifting stories as well as incredible lessons on what they do best. (While the in-person event is fully booked, TEDYouth will also be livestreamed for FREE on Nov. 17, from 1 to 6pm EST, and interpreted into Spanish and Arabic. Sign up for a livestream reminder notification here.)

This year’s TEDxYouthDay theme is “Dream Big…Then Do It!” For the past month, youth from around the world have been sharing their big ideas for a better world. Here, some selections from the TEDxYouthDay photo campaign, for which young people completed the sentence, “A dream that I commit to making real is…” The breadth, depth, and creativity of these answers have astonished us — like the answer above from Instagram user shenjustshen – and we can’t wait to see what these dreamers will accomplish.

Also from Instagram user shenjustshen, a TEDxYouthDay participant writes that her dream is “to show the world that there is no such thing as perfection in art.”

A participant from TEDxYouth@DiscoveryCollege says he hopes to be the first man on Mars and Pluto.

TEDxYouthDay reporter Serena Chao shares her dream, to stay true to herself.

A TEDxParkCityDaySchool team member shares his dream, “Finding a enjoyable and successful job.”

Instagram user sritahereje says she commits to the “spread of creative messages.”

A participant of TEDxYouth@DiscoveryCollege shares her dream: “To prove everyone wrong.”

TEDxYouthDay Reporter Jahbari Wallace aims high with his dream, filling in the sentence with the words “doing the right thing in every situation.”

A TEDxParkCityDaySchool team members share her dream “to help stop starvation.”

This weekend, join us as we celebrate the extraordinary accomplishments and drive of our youth to keep this world an ever-incredible place. Settle down, make yourself a sandwich, and stay glued to the TEDxYouthDay website, where TEDxYouthDay events will be livestreaming throughout Saturday and Sunday.

TEDYouth livestreams!
In English: http://new.livestream.com/tedyouth/en
In Spanish: http://new.livestream.com/tedyouth/es
In Arabic: http://new.livestream.com/tedyouth/ar

On Saturday, Nov. 17, more than 20 speakers, performers and kids will take the stage at TEDYouth, a TED event for high school students. It happens 1-6pm Eastern in New York, and it’ll be livestreamed for free — and translated into Spanish and Arabic!

Sign up for an email reminder of the TEDYouth webstream — you’ll get one email on Friday and another email one hour before the show starts.

And read more about the amazing speakers planned for TEDYouth. Each one will be bringing a great short lesson, poem or demo to share with the audience in New York and around the world.

TEDYouth is just one part of a larger event happening this weekend across the globe. TEDxYouthDay is a series of TEDx events for and by young people on Saturday, November 17, and Sunday, November 18. Themed “Dream Big … Then Do It,” more than 100 events in 46 countries will be inspiring curiosity, igniting new ideas and empowering young leaders.

Check out the live simulcasts of speakers from TEDxYouthDay events around the world at tedxyouthday.ted.com >>

Find a TEDxYouthDay event in your area >>

Deadline extended to submit your short video: Dec. 5! For our next conference — TED2012: Full Spectrum — we’re looking for 10 of the world’s best teachers to take the TED stage during a special session we’re calling The Classroom. We’re accepting video nominations to help track these people down. You can nominate yourself or a remarkable educator we should know about — who doesn’t have to be a teacher in the traditional sense.

How to nominate: Make a video or point us to an existing video, read the details below, and then nominate yourself or another person >>

After TED, talks from The Classroom will have a life online as part of TED-Ed, a new initiative we’re launching in 2012. With TED-Ed, we are creating a library of videos just for educators and students. The videos will be arranged using teacher-centric/learner-centric categories and tags, designed to help teachers quickly discover the perfect video for the lesson at hand. The videos will also be arranged into playlists to give students a multidisciplinary, immersive insight into a learning concept.

The talks we’re looking for will each:

+ be shorter than 10 minutes
+ contain informative material, not just inspiring messages
+ be delivered with a huge amount of passion for the topic
+ engage an audience from age 14 to adult
+ be something you might imagine a teacher using in the classroom as video to supplement a lesson.

We’re especially keen to include brilliant EXPLANATIONS, meaningful A-HA moments, powerful STORIES, indelible IMAGES.

Here are a few links to talks that fit the bill:

Vilayanur Ramachandran on mirror neurons

David Gallo shares underwater astonishments

This explanation of special relativity

Derek Sivers: Weird, or just different?

Now, a couple of notes about what we’re not looking for. For this session, we do not want talks about teaching methods, education reform or education in general. We are not looking for an inspiring, “go forth,” commencement-style talk. We do love those sometimes, but they’re not a fit for this session.

You must submit a short video to enter.

The deadline for nominations is December 5, 2011, at midnight Eastern. We’ll contact the speakers we’ve chosen with invitations (or more questions) by December 12, 2011.

TED2012 takes place February 27-March 2, 2012, in Long Beach, California. The Classroom session will take place on March 2. We’ll cover coach travel, good accommodations, and a pass to TED for those 10 amazing teachers who take the stage.

We hope you’ll share your best lessons (or teachers) with us. Good luck!

Nominate yourself or another person >>

Photo of David Gallo by Ryan Lash

Dive into this giant photoset from yesterday’s TEDYouth — from setup to sessions to the crazy action on the breaks. Most images come from TEDYouth photographer Ryan Lash; a few from TED’s photo editor, Mike Femia.

All photos: Ryan Lash

After an amazing break (filled with beatboxing and Interesting Things) we reconvene for Session 2 of TEDYouth.

“I’m not going to blow anything up,” says Adam Savage. :( He’s best known for his role as co-host of the TV show MythBusters on the Discovery Channel. (Watch his talk on TED.com) His work on TV is about testing, clear thinking, and applying the scientific method to the questions we want answered. Onstage at TEDYouth, he thinks deeply about science, and shares a classic experiment by Fizeau, who used a notched wheel to discover, elegantly, that light had a speed. “Today’s discoveries are possible by technology developed in the last few decades, but most of human history has relied on senses.” He says: “Most people think of science as a closed black box, but in fact it is an open field … and there is no such thing as a fact that cannot be independently corroborated.”

Steve Stoute talked about how hip-hop has transformed a new generation. If you grew up in the ’70s and ’80s, he says, you were one or the other: rock-and-roll or hip-hop. But as he looks out onto this young audience he says: “Cultural diversity is something that your generation has full access to.” Think of skateboarding. “Is skateboarding only for skinny white kids anymore?” he asks? “No. It’s for everybody. Everybody can partake in anything.” Call it the Tanning Effect: that all culture is melding and everyone’s free to take from where they wish: “Different skin colors can come from different places, yet still have similar beliefs.” Stoute screened for us a defining cultural moment of the Tanning Effect: “Walk This Way,” starring Run-DMC with Aerosmith. (Dear people of the ’70s and ’80s, please know that the young audience was cracking up laughing at this ancient document.) But it’s true now: “With the Internet, you can see culture and be inspired anywhere at any time. That is why you can be anything you want to be.”

Jason Munshi-South is a researcher at Baruch College who studies the behavioral, ecological and evolutionary impacts of humans on the inhabitants of New York City parks. By which he means: mice, rats, salamanders — even coyotes (though he can’t tell you where yet). He says “I’m here to encourage you to think about New York City in a new way — as an evolutionary force.” What does that mean? It means that salamanders who live under the bridge at 169th Street have slightly different DNA than salamanders who live at 180th Street, on the opposite side of the same bridge. Mice in one park are developing different traits and habits than mice in a nearby park, as if they were urban Galapagos islands. And it turns out: City mice really are different from country mice.

Can you imagine a kid from South Central LA changing his/her mind from becoming a gang member to a National Geographic Explorer? That’s exactly what happened to Juan D. Martinez. Given the ultimatum of staying in dentention or joining the eco-club, Juan took a chance on the eco-club. And though he originally suffered from a “nature deficit disorder”, he found an easy fix by just getting outside! Juan’s story is a testament to youth to “never ever doubt what you can do.”

Daniela Schiller is an assistant professor of psychiatry and neuroscience at Mount Sinai School of Medicine. Her research studies “the process in which experience turns to memory.” The question shes’ interested in: Why does a bad memory stay with us for so long — and in what part of the brain does it live? It turns out that memory is active; it changes. “Every time we retrieve a memory, we have to consolidate it again,” she says. “The act of remembering is a new experience in itself. Each time we retrieve a memory and re-store it, it’s a little bit different — what we remember is not the original event, it’s our latest version of it.” So, she suggests, sometime in a future, we might be able tofind the place where a bad memory is stored, and physically interfere with the act of remembering it again. In fact, we can even do something like that now: “When you have a fear-memory: think of it, then think of something nice. Maybe a part of that will be re-remembered with the fear memory.”

Ish Islam and Justin Long-Moton come to us from New York City’s Urban Word program, and are two of its finest young poets. Working in tight harmony they spun a poem for the very young — that age when “Mario taught us self worth every time he said ‘it’s a-me!’” and “We knew Crayola on a first-name basis, but were blind to the color of our best friends.”

Kevin Allocca is the trends manager of YouTube, where he tracks popular video phenomena. Yes: His job is to watch YouTube videos all day. To give you a sense of that: 40 hours of video are uploaded every minute onto YouTube. What makes one video go viral? Like, why did 31 million of us watch this? (It’s “Double Rainbow,” in case you don’t want to click and be part of the 32nd million.) Why have 4 million people watched a 3-hour version of Nyan Cat? “What does it meeeeean?” Kevin shows us how this world of silliness is driven by community — both in sharing a great link and in making a video reply of your own. As he says: “An entire remix community brought the rainbow video from just a stupid joke to being something we can all be a part of.”

Brad Meltzer writes political thrillers and ferrets out inspiring history. He’s the co-host of the History Channel’s Decoded. He asks: “How do you change history? Bream big, work hard, stay humble.” And it’s never too soon to start. “Who has the best dreams of all? You. Young people.” So: start. How old was Dr. Martin Luther King when he led the Mongomery bus boycott? 26. Two 17-year-olds created Superman. Eight-year-old Alex raised $1 for cancer research. “If you dream big, I don’t care how old you are, and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise, you will change history. So get your pens ready and write us something spectacular.”

Lemon Andersen is a Tony-winning performer and spoken-word artist, the subject of the documentary Lemon. He takes the TEDYouth stage with an impressive performance of how “it ain’t about being heard, just being seen.” Lemon’s goal? To transcend poetry into the world. Or: “How do I get people who hate poetry to love me?” However, before he could do that, Lemon shares a few lessons he learned that goes beyond self-expression and into creative control. Some lessons he learned in the world he grew up in: “While you went to a privileged school to learn the sonnets of Shakespeare, I was getting my beats kicked into me.” And some he learned when he tried to make his living as a performer and was judged “too black to be white, too white to be doing it right.”

How can you possibly end this? With a Rube Goldberg machine, of course. The team from Wantagh High School spent all day yesterday assembling this crazy complicated machine onstage. And they let it rip!

– Writing and research by Corvida Raven

Today, Nov. 19, 1-5pm Eastern: TEDYouth’s speaker lineup includes a MythBuster, an oceanographer turned viral video star, the “Science Babe,” and a roboticist who studies flying geckos — plus poets, musicmakers, geeks and writers — all giving short TED-style talks for young people.

And you can watch it live for free online — in English and Spanish!

The theme for TEDYouth is “Play, Learn, Build and Share.” Watch and be inspired and challenged by these passionate speakers, who’ll inspire creativity, share mind-shifting stories, and engage the in-person and virtual audience in ways that every student deserves.

Watch the TEDYouth livestream in English >>

Ver TEDYouth en español en linea >>

Speaker lineup:

Adam Savage is a maker of things, building everything from spaceships to buddhas, from puppets to rifles, from sculptures to toys. He’s best known for his role as co-host of the TV show MythBusters on the Discovery Channel. (Watch his talk on TED.com)

Robert Full studies cockroach legs and gecko feet. His research is helping build the perfect “distributed foot” for tomorrow’s robots, based on evolution’s ancient engineering. (Watch his TEDTalks)

David Gallo is pioneer in ocean exploration and an enthusiastic ambassador between the sea and those of us on dry land. (Watch his TEDTalks)

Brad Meltzer is a best-selling author whose writing focuses on political thrillers. Most recently, he is the co-host of the History Channel’s Decoded.

Déborah Berebichez, also known as “The Science Babe,” studies the science behind everyday life, like the physics of wearing high heels. (Watch her talk from TEDxEast)

Lemon Andersen is a Tony-winning performer and spoken-word artist who is also the subject of a newly released documentary film about his life called Lemon.

Leah Buechley is an MIT designer who mixes high and low tech to create smart and playful results.

Kevin Allocca tracks trends for YouTube.

Juan D. Martinez is a National Geographic Explorer who dedicates his energy to grassroots campaigns from health care and housing discrimination, to creating garden space where he grew up in South Central L.A.

Greg Gage has combined invertebrate preparations with off-the-shelf electronics, to create a kit that could provide insight into the inner workings of the body, specifically the brain. He is a TED2012 Fellow.

Arianne Cohen is the author of The Tall Book, where she shares the pros and cons of living life as a 6’3″ woman.

Steve Stoute is one of the most influential voices in pop culture. His work examines how hip-hop has transformed a new generation, conquered the global marketplace, and rewritten the rules of the new economy.

Jason Munshi-South is a researcher at Baruch College who studies the behavioral, ecological and evolutionary impacts of humans on the inhabitants of New York City parks.

Daniela Schiller is an assistant professor of psychiatry and neuroscience at Mount Sinai School of Medicine. Her research focuses on the neural mechanisms underlying emotional control.

Garth Sundem is a mathematician who uses mathematics to answer everyday questions, such as whether to goof or study.

Chris Anderson is the curator of the TED Conference. (Watch his TEDTalks)

Ish Islam, Justin Long-Moton and Carvens Lissaint come from New York City’s Urban Word program, and are three of its finest young poets.

Videos from the TEDYouth program will become part of the amazing TED-Ed video archive, to be premiered in 2012.

Watch the TEDYouth livestream in English >>

Ver TEDYouth en español en linea >>

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