One of my ideas for my TED talk speech is my hobby of snowboarding. It is one of my favorite things to do. It is also my job, I am a snowboarding instructor at Buena Vista Ski Area. I would discuss the basics fundamentals of the sport. It would also be good to talk about safe snowboarding, to prevent injuries. It is a difficult hobby to learn but its extremely fun. I can talk about the increased popularity of the hobby.
A topic of interest to me is how dogs can have a positive effect on a person’s life. I was really close to my dog and pretty much grew up with him, and now that he is gone I realize how special he was to me and had a positive effect on me. Dogs make really good friends and owners can develop a close meaningful relationship with their pet. Some dogs are used for therapy, or rescue and can make a huge difference or even save a person’s life.
A third topic I think would be good is Tennis, I have been playing tennis ever since I was really young and its been a big part of my life. I really enjoy the sport. I thought for this topic I could talk about how it feels being apart of a team, and the relationships that are built along the way.
Another topic I could use is the importance of water in all aspects of life. I think I could include how most people take it for granted, while others see water as survival. Its crazy to think how we can get water instantly, but in other places in the world people have to walk miles to get water. This topic is very broad, so I would need to narrow the topic and be more specific. This topic is thought provoking because it makes the average person reflect what their life would be like without accessible water.
My last topic I have is recycling and how it helps the environment by lessening the amount of waste that goes into landfills, reduces the amount of product or packaging being created. Recycling is more than just separating trash, it has become an important way of living and it is an attempt to make the planet a better place for everyone.
I really like your idea of snowboarding. It sounds like you know a lot about it and are passionate about it. I also think it would be easy for you to talk about it. You could bring in your personal experiences and others that you've observed while teaching it.
ReplyDeleteI also think your water topic is really unique. It find it really interesting. One way to make it less broad is to look a a specific country or village that has benefited from having a water pump installed. Or you can look at organizations, one that I know of is called "Ryan's Wells". It's an interesting story about a guy, not too much older than us, who since the age of 7 I think, has been raising money to not only build wells but be able to keep them maintained. You have a lot of great ideas:)
1. Snowboarding could work really well if you examine it in its role as "organized sport" - think of it in terms of how it's respected/not respected, etc.
ReplyDelete2. How did dogs evolve/domesticate? How do their modern behaviors serve as a response to evolutionary ideas? To what extent to they see us as their pack? How do we take advantage of them when they trust us? --- I like this idea as process and narrative. It would be really cool for you to compare your personal experiences, how your own life is enriched by this companionship, with the history of what a dog is --- there is a LOT of interesting research into how the modern dog evolved, with some leading biologists hypothesizing that they domesticated us as much (or more) than we domesticated them. I even saw a really cool study done which shows that domesticated dogs see us as a part of the pack - in the end, they don't see us as any different from another dog. It's such a cool field.
3. I think I like this best when you examine it as an idea of "what is teamwork?" beginning with a narrative of your place. Maybe examine the idea that we as a people ALWAYS seek out a team of some sort. Why do we want to belong? What does it do for us?
4. This would be an interesting examination because you could go into the history of civilization, in a very real way. Societies began as gatherings around a central water source, and to this day the most population-dense areas are around fresh water. This isn't an accident. It would be cool for you to build this as an examination of our love/hate - why do we pollute the very thing that gives life? How can we use our water as a combination smorgasbord/toilet? This could also blend into option 5 some, if you let it.
5. Did you know that most recycling that we do ends up in a landfill? If you go this route, think of the politicization of what should be common-sense ideas.