sending signals
the teen brain & beyond
feeling energetic
do the math!
scientific discoveries
100

The central nervous system is made up of the brain and this body part.

What is the spine?

100

Located at the back of the brain, this region coordinates physical balance and encodes muscle memory for activities like riding a bike.

What is the cerebellum?

100

According to the law of Consevation of energy this is what energy can never be.

What is created or destroyed?

100
A student throws a 600 g basketball vertically into the air and it reaches a height of 5.0 m. This is its GPE.

(use g = 9.8 m/s2)

What is 29.4 J?

100

This device was invented by Alexander Graham Bell

What is the telephone?

200

When bare feet step into an icy mountain stream, these specialized receptors detect the extreme cold and alert the CNS.

What are thermoreceptors?

200

This process eliminates underused synaptic connections during adolescence, reducing grey matter volume to increase overall processing efficiency.

What is synaptic pruning?

200

The word used to describe energy that is no longer useable.

What is dissipated?

200

A lightbulb takes in 200 J of electrical energy each minute and produces 50J of light and 150 J of heat energy. This is its efficiency.

What is 25%?
200

A 2026 study published in Animal Behaviour revealed that these mammals don't just solve complex physical puzzles for food—they often solve them just for the fun of learning!

What are racoons?

300

This nerve carries the signals responsible for your sense of smell.

What is the olfactory nerve?

300

During teenage development, this emotional, threat-evaluating structure matures earlier than the prefrontal cortex, often driving heightened reactivity and risk-taking.

What is the amygdala?

300

When something is stretched, it gains this type of energy.

What is elastic? (elastic potential)

300

A 0.50 kg basketball is held above the ground and possesses 24.5 J of gravitational potential energy. 

This is the height at which the basketball is held. 

(Use g = 9.8 m/s2)

5 m

300

After noticing how burrs from burdock plants stuck to his dog's fur during a hike in 1941, Swiss engineer George de Mestral invented this popular hook-and-loop fabric fastener.

What is velcro?

400

These specialized neurons serve as the bridge connecting sensory and motor pathways in a reflex arc.

What are interneurons?

400

Glial cells create this fatty insulating sheath around axons to dramatically boost signal transmission speeds, fully wrapping the prefrontal cortex by around age 25.

What is myelin? (will also accept myelination)

400

The part of its swing at which a pendulum has the greatest kinetic energy.

What is the bottom?

400

Calculate the speed of a 1200 kg car that has a kinetic energy of 150 000 J.

What is 15.81 m/s?

400

In 1928, Alexander Fleming accidentally discovered this first effective antibiotic growing on a contaminated Petri dish of bacteria.

What is penicillin?

500

Stepping into a bright sunny room triggers oculomotor nerves to contract the pupils and squint the eyes to protect this light-sensitive tissue at the back of the eye.

What is the retina?

500

Composed of the midbrain, pons, and medulla oblongata, this structure continuously regulates automatic survival functions like breathing rate and heartbeat.

What is the brainstem?

500

The unit used to measure electrical energy in our homes. 

What is the kWh? (kilowatthour)

500

A skateboarder rolls up a ramp starting at the bottom with a velocity of 7.0 m/s. Assuming no energy is lost to friction or air resistance, this is the maximum vertical height the skateboarder reaches above the ramp base. (Use g = 9.8 m/s2)

What is 2.5 m?

500

In 2012, physicists at CERN's Large Hadron Collider confirmed the discovery of this subatomic particle, often called the "God Particle," which gives mass to other fundamental particles.

What is the Higgs Boson?