The 10 most popular TedEd animations of 2021

 

In 2021, our YouTube audience spent over 36 million hours watching TED-Ed Animations (that’s equal to over 4,100 years!). Our most-viewed videos of 2021 include a self-healing, cannibalistic salamander, a pair of star-crossed lovers, a handful to help you understand your body, an epic journey to the end of the world, and more.

Behold our top 10 most popular videos of 2021:

In 2013, a group of researchers wanted to create an AI system that could beat every Atari game. They developed a system called Deep Q Networks (DQN) and less than two years later, it was superhuman. But there was one notable exception. When playing Montezuma’s Revenge, DQN couldn’t score a single point. What was it that made this game so vexingly difficult for AI? Brian Christian investigates. Check out the video here.

Want to dig a little deeper? How to manage your time more effectively (according to machines) Can machines read your emotions? How does artificial intelligence learn?

Additional Resources At this conservation center in central China, captive-born pandas go through a gradual, carefully monitored process to prepare them for lives in their natural habitat. Photographer Ami Vitale shows how they go from wriggly newborns to independent adventurers.

Halloween Poetry

 

This is a fun activity from Kasey Bell. Share it with your firiends!

Vocabulary Challenge

 

How many of our recent Words of the Day can you use correctly in a 50-word story? Send us yours by April 15. And check out the winners of our March challenge!

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Explore the World With These 100 Country Quizzes

 Expand your knowledge of geography and culture with our short “Country of the Week” quizzes, all based on reporting, photos and videos from The New York Times.

If you need more information on how to subscribe to the New York Times, here's the information from the YHS library