Brain Factoids: June is Brain Awareness Month

Cool Brain Factoids

The brain is made up of five main parts: the brain stem, pituitary gland, hypothalamus, cerebellum, and the cerebrum.  Learn some cool facts about your brain! Share these facts with students.

• Did you know that the brain is about 3 pounds in weight?

• The largest part of the brain, or 85%, is called the "cerebrum".

• Did you know that 75% of the brain is made up of water?

• The brain feels no pain as there aren’t any pain receptors in the brain.

• If you lined up all the neurons in your brain, they’d stretch about 600 miles!  That’s because there are about one hundred BILLION neurons in the brain. They are very tiny. About 50 neurons could be lined up side by side across a dot. What’s a neuron?  It’s a nerve cell.

• You can’t tickle yourself! That’s because the brain can tell the difference between your own touch and an external one.

• Did you know that there is a "Brain Bank" at Harvard? It’s the largest such “bank” in the world. About 7,000 brains are stored at the bank for research.

• Mummies of ancient Egyptians have been found with drilled holes suggesting people had some sorts of brain surgery in ancient times.

• You could use a butter knife to cut the brain. It is that soft.

• Your brain creates about 25 watts of energy while you are awake, enough to light up a light bulb.

• Ancient Egyptians didn’t see any value in the human brain. It was removed via the nostrils and thrown away in the mummy-making process.

• It is estimated that we have 70,000 thoughts each and every day! That’s a lot of thoughts…hopefully they are positive ones!

• 170 mph is the speed at which nerve impulses travel to the brain and back.

• Scientists say we blink about 20,000 times each day. The brain keeps the world from going dark each time we blink.

• The hypothalamus is your brain’s thermostat. It monitors your body temperature. If it is too high, you sweat to help cool down. If your body temperature gets cold, you shiver to warm up.

• Have you had a “brain freeze”? The correct term is "sphenopalatine ganglioneuralgia".

• Often nicknamed, the “grey matter”, the brain is actually a pink-beige color.

• It is estimated that the brain has about 100,000 miles of blood vessels!

• In the Middle Ages, eating eagle hearts and crushed lizards was thought to be brain food!

• Our brain’s very short term memory (working memory) can remember up to about seven digits at a time before it is forgotten. Hmmm, no wonder telephone numbers are no longer than seven digits!

Check out these Brain links:

• Some fun Brain Activities.
• KidsHealth's Your Brain and Nervous System.
• Ducksters Biology for Kids: The Human Brain.
• Enchanted Learning's Brain Resources.
   

Check out my teaching resources at my Pinterest page.

Check out my website for teachers/kids.

Note: Illustration from wpclipart.com

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By Gail Hennessey, Education World Contributor