Styrofoam products are everywhere. We all know that they are not good for our planet because they cannot be recycled and sit in landfills. But how do we solve this problem? Leave it to a kid that refused to give up. Ashton Cofer gave his TED Talk in December of 2016 that incorporated elements of storytelling, visuals, repetition and call to action. Here’s my breakdown of what worked well in this young presenter’s TED Talk.
First, Cofer makes Ethos3 happy because he opens his speech with a story. He talks about a time when he made a mistake and forgot to check on his science experiment that was in his father’s grill, which lead to a fire. He uses a photo to illustrate the severity of this. But he also finds the humor in the story when he mentions how his sister Snapchatted the whole thing to her friends.
Cofer then transitions to establishing himself as a talented young inventor. He gives himself and his friend credit for competing in science fairs. This leads to how they got the idea to solve the world’s Styrofoam problem.
Using graphics to support his facts and statistics, Cofer shows how quickly Styrofoam becomes garbage. Recycling Styrofoam is not a solution companies want to pursue because it is costly and dangerous. But Cofer questioned whether or not this is an impossible problem to solve. He believed that there was a way to reduce the amount Styrofoam from piling up in our landfills.
So Cofer and his friends came up with the idea to extract the carbon already present in Styrofoam and use it in other products, like water filters. Speaking with great enthusiasm, Cofer and his friends thought they had solved the problem but the first experiments proved otherwise. In fact, they failed at this experiment so many times that they all almost gave up.
“So why did we keep trying when all the adults said it was impossible? Well, maybe it’s because we’re kids. We don’t know any better. But the truth is, we kept trying because we thought it was still possible. We knew that if we were successful, we would be helping the environment and making the world a better place. So, we kept trying and failing and trying and failing.”
Eventually, things took a turn for the better and they did find a way to get the carbon out of the Styrofoam. This lead to Cofer and his friend receiving many awards and grants for their work. This is a great example of presenting a problem, and going into detail on how to get the solution. Cofer also uses some repetition to describe how many times he failed but kept trying anyway.
My favorite part of this TED Talk is the conclusion. Cofer does a good job of tying back in the story from the beginning with his call to action:
“So in the future, don’t be afraid if your grill goes up in flames, because you never know when your idea might just catch fire.”
He encourages everyone to never give up even if you face failures. His youthful excitement for science and problem solving is inspirational and energizing. Especially coming from someone so young who has a bright future ahead of him.
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