A TEDYouth attendee on the edge of his beanbag chair. Photo: Ryan Lash
TEDYouth 2013 was a blast. In session 1, Suzanne Simard taught us about the familial relationships of trees. In session 2, Maya Penn shared how she launched a business at 8 years old. And in session 3, Ashton Kutcher thrilled the crowd with a surprise talk on what it means to be a “magnificent failure.” Throughout it all, the 400 middle and high school students in attendance clapped, cheered, absorbed knowledge and shared a lot of their own.
Here, some incredible photos from TEDYouth. Half of them were taken by TED photographer Ryan Lash, while the other half were snapped by an intrepid group of youth volunteers, who brought a wonderfully unique eye to documenting the event.
The audience at TEDYouth often jumped to their feet. Oh, and kids got to take beanbag chairs home with them after the event. Photo: Ryan Lash
Henry Lin, who won this year’s Intel Science Fair for his models of galaxy clusters, delivers the message: “Science is a rough draft. There is so much that baffles us and challenges our understanding.” Photo: Ryan Lash
Attendee Sevanah Howard shot this image of Tony DeRose, Senior Scientist at Pixar Animation Studios. She explains, “He designed this really cool model of the old man playing chess. It was amazing to see what he could do with animation.” Photo: Sevanah Howard
Attendee Sarah Grammar snapped this photo of the TEDYouth audience, enrapt in a talk by Caitlin O’Connell-Rodwell, who studies the ways elephant communicate and form family bonds. Photo: Sarah Grammar
During breaks, kids and teens at TEDYouth got to snap photos of themselves with the TED logo. Photo: Ryan Lash
Booths around the event challenged attendees to use their creativity and make something. Photo: Ryan Lash
Attendee Sophie Fuselier was highly amused by James McLurkin, whose swarm of tiny robots demonstrated how they communicate to form a straight line. Photo: Sophie Fuselier
Toyota was on the scene of TEDYouth, with a distracted driving simulator that underscored just how much of a driver’s attention is zapped by reaching for something in the backseat or sending a text message. Photo: Ryan Lash
TEDYouth co-host Kelly Stoetzel talks to a group of kids. Photo: Ryan Lash
Appearing throughout the Civic Theater in New Orleans—big, red, TED balloons. Photo: Sarah Grammar
One of the moments that most electrified the audience—a talk from Brandon Odums, who founded New Orleans’ 2-Cent Entertainment. Photo: Sevanah Howard
Henry Lin looks to Henry Ford for an explanation of why we need to continue the study of space, even if it doesn’t make sense to everyone. Photo: Sarah Grammar
TEDYouth co-host Rives shows off his socks. Photo: Sophie Fuselier
Matt Kuchta’s big idea: build with sand. Photo: Ryan Lash
Speaker Joy Reidenberg had an exhibition table full of whale parts. Photo: Sevanah Howard
An attendee tries his hand at stop-motion, at TED-Ed’s Animation Station. Photo: Ryan Lash
A big thanks to the young photographers who helped out with this post!