Brain and Body
What is serotonin?
This "feel-good" chemical messenger in the brain helps regulate mood, sleep, and appetite. Low levels of it are often linked to depression.
This common physical feeling happens when you feel overwhelmed by schoolwork or upcoming exams. It can cause sweaty palms or a racing heart.
Stress
This four-letter acronym describes the anxious feeling that your friends are having fun without you, often triggered by seeing their posts online.
FOMO
This flightless bird from New Zealand lays an egg that takes up roughly 20% of its mother's body size—the largest egg relative to body size of any bird in the world.
Kiwi
Who was the artist that painted the Mona Lisa?
Leonardo Da Vinci
What is cortisol?
A primary stress hormone that spikes during a "fight-or-flight" response, raising your heart rate and blood pressure.
Unlike being sad for a day or two, this mental health condition involves a prolonged feeling of sadness or loss of interest in activities that lasts for weeks or months.
Depression
Experts recommend turning off all electronic screens at least this many minutes before bed to ensure your brain can produce enough melatonin for deep sleep.
30 to 60 minutes
According to the Guinness World Records, the longest-running animated TV show in history is what?
The Simpsons
At Wimbledon in 2010, tennis players John Isner and Nicolas Mahut played a tennis match for this amount of time?
11 hours (3 days)
True or False ?
Our gut is the bodies "second brain".
TRUE
The gut produces about 90% of the body's serotonin and communicates directly with the mind via the vagus nerve.
This emotion is often called a "secondary emotion" because it usually hides more vulnerable feelings underneath it, like fear, hurt, or embarrassment.
This is the negative habit of scrolling through endless bad news on your phone, which can spike your anxiety and make the world feel unsafe.
Doomscrolling
This sea creature has three hearts, nine brains, and blue blood, and it can squeeze its entire body through a hole the size of a coin.
Octopus
Between the years 1900 and 1920, this classic playground rope-pulling game was officially contested as a competitive Olympic sport. What is it?
Tug of War
What part of the brain controls emotions like fear and anxiety?
The Amygdala
Experiencing this type of intense, sudden wave of fear can make a person feel like they can't breathe, even when there is no immediate danger.
Panic Attack
This word means putting yourself in someone else's shoes to truly understand and share their feelings when they are going through a hard time.
Empathy
It sounds impossible, but because of how their blood vessels work, these small, slow-moving mammals can hold their breath underwater for up to 40 minutes—longer than dolphins can.
Sloth
Who is the NZ athlete that has won Olympic Gold medals in 2008 and 2012, alongside four World Championship titles.
Valerie Adams
What is the hormone called that signals the body to start getting sleepy?
Melatonin
This is the psychological term for "bouncing back" or recovering quickly from a difficult situation, like failing a test or experiencing a disappointment.
Resilience
What is it called if you keep a regular notebook or diary to write down your thoughts, goals, or things you are grateful for.
Journalling
This is the only mammal in the world capable of true, sustained flight (unlike animals that just glide, like flying squirrels).
Bat
This specific cup is contested annually between the All Blacks and the Wallabies, historically dominated by New Zealand since the early 2000s.
Bledisloe Cup