>> welcome to "teen kids news." i'm livia. let's start with our top story. exams and tests make many of us a bit hyper, and that's not necessarily a bad thing. getting the heart pumping helps us get energized and puts us on our toes. but as scott reports, if tests make you far more than just a bit hyper, that can be a bad thing. >> before a big test, i feel nervous and anxious. >> before, really nervous.

after, extremely nervous if i failed or not. >> i get really nervous, and i feel like i'm gonna fail. >> they're describing what experts call test anxiety. it's a serious issue for many students. to understand it and to deal with it, we're turning to an expert, psychologist dr. dena rabinowitz. hi. >> hi. how are you? >> i'm good, thank you. first of all, what is test anxiety? >> test anxiety is when a student gets very nervous or fearful either before or during a test, and it interferes with their ability to perform the way they would otherwise. >> does that mean we actually don't get the highest scores we could get because of test anxiety? >> it does. test anxiety interferes in many different ways. when you're anxious, you can't concentrate and focus, and so it creates problems studying and preparing for the test, and during the test, it makes it hard to focus on the test questions and getting good answers down on the piece of paper. also, it can make you feel all these different physical symptoms like nausea or dizziness so that, again, it'shd

how you want to perform. >> who's most likely to experience test anxiety? >> anybody can have test anxiety, but the most likely students to experience it are ones who either worry a lot about general issues or about academics in particular or kids who like to be perfect and focus on really high grades and doing really well in school. >> how can we tell if we have test anxiety or just had a hard test? >> everybody gets anxious once in awhile, and everybody can get anxious before or during a test, but students with test anxiety get far more anxious than the average student, and they get anxious a lot longer and before the test. so it's a much more extreme form of the normal anxiety that everybody else feels. >> in your opinion, has test anxiety actually increased in recent years? >> i think it has. i think that there's been a lot of focus lately on tests and standardized tests and teaching to the test for teachers, and so when teachers talk about a test

and how important it is, it increases how nervous kids get about that particular test and makes test anxiety that much harder. >> when we return, dr. dena will give us some tips on dealing with test anxiety.

>> i usually just study a lot before, and then after a while i'm not nervous anymore 'cause i know i'm prepared. >> chew a lot of gum. chew on the top of the pens. just try to get through it. >> study with friends, like, have a study group, and just think positive. think the best. >> we're talking with psychologist dr. dena rabinowitz. so, for those of us who may have test anxiety, what are some of

the things we can do to overcome it? >> there's a couple things you can do that will really help. the best thing is to be prepared. if you have laid out your time well, have good study skills, and don't procrastinate before the test, you'll be more ready for the test and feel more confident in your ability to do well. a good night's sleep is also really important, as is eating a meal beforehand so that you don't go in on an empty stomach and feel all those nauseous butterfly-in-the-stomach feelings. >> how about relaxation techniques? do they work? >> they do. relaxation techniques are really, really helpful. there's a couple really good ones that you can use before a test to help you relax both your mind and your body. the first is called diaphragmatic breathing, which is just another way of saying deep breathing. the way you do it is you breathe in deeply through your nose for about two seconds and then breathe out through your mouth for about three seconds in a slow, steady manner. it looks something like this. [ inhales deeply ] [ exhales deeply ] [ inhales deeply ]

[ exhales deeply ] when you do that, it gives your body a chance to calm down, and it makes the anxiety slightly less. another good technique is called progressive muscle relaxation, where you focus on a muscle group that's really tense and help it relax. so, for example, i get tense in my shoulders. when i do that, i raise my shoulders up like this, feel the tension in that area, and then release it and feel my whole body relax a little bit. the last thing you can do is a visualization technique in which you just imagine yourself in a more calm, pleasant place, maybe like walking along the beach or hanging out with your friends. and so you're not focusing in that moment so much on the test and the stress that causes and have a more calm and pleasant experience. >> well, what if these techniques don't work? at what point should a student seek help, and who should they go to? >> if you find that your test anxiety is constant -- if it's before every test, and it's really interfering with your ability to do well, to feel good about yourself, and to study for

your test and perform, that's the time to seek help. there are people in the school who can help you with this, like teachers and guidance counselors, or you can talk to your parents. they can then decide if you need to see a psychologist or a psychiatrist who can diagnose and treat the test anxiety. >> any final words of advice? >> i think it's really important for students to remember that the purpose of a test is to see if you know the material. one single test is not gonna determine the course of your whole life or whether you get into college. so, stay in the moment, try to relax, do the best you can, and don't worry about it so much. >> thank you, dr. dena. you've given us a lot of great information. >> you're welcome. have a good day. >> while we can't stop teachers from giving us tests, we can work on stopping tests from giving us stress. prepare, visualize, and breathe. [ inhales deeply ] [ exhales deeply ] >> many of us take pride on how fast we can text. in fact, there's even a national

texting championship. a recent winner was able to text almost six letters a second. in other words, the winner could text the word "second" almost as fast as i can say it. second. second! let me see you beat that. >> i'll tell you why some kids won scholarships by drilling holes in trash cans. [ drill whirs ]

>> an abandoned reservoir, a lot of mosquitos, and some very dedicated students add up to an award-winning science project. veronique has the buzz. >> i have lived in jersey city for 14 years now, and i used to walk by these stone walls and wonder, "what's in there? why is it so important?"

>> it was very important back a long time ago. for more than 100 years, reservoir number 3 provided drinking water to the town, but when it was no longer needed, it fell into disrepair. >> and the reservoir is, like, an abandoned place, and nobody really goes there. >> one of the reasons why people avoid the area is that it's infested with mosquitos, and the mosquitos were spreading, causing problems in the community. >> and what we found were mosquitos were breeding in trash cans around the reservoir. and we documented that, and we started thinking, "what can we do?" >> they came up with a simple plan with a simple name... >> water collects in trash cans like this one, and mosquitos lay their eggs in the water. in order to get rid of the mosquitos, we have to get rid of the water. so, we collect trash cans, we see if there's water in them, and we put a hole in it. [ drill whirs ] >> after we put a hole in it, we take our sticker, and it's our

very own "put a hole in it" sticker, and we put it on each garbage can that has a hole in it. [ drill whirs ] >> the "put a hole in it" campaign worked, but it was just one part of their project. they still wanted to turn the abandoned reservoir into a useful recreation area, and that meant getting rid of the pesky skeeters that called the place home. >> the kids basically didn't want to use pesticides or anything that could be harmful to the flora or the fauna, so we had to develop a natural way to do this, which really hasn't been done before. 'cause, essentially, what we do with recyclable bottles is we hang them from trees, and we basically create these havens for mosquitos to lay eggs, and then we capture their larvae. >> so, the students regularly visit the reservoir. it's an expedition that requires determination and protection -- lots of protection. but even with bug spray, they still get bites. >> here we have our mlcu's set

up. they are mosquito-larva collection units. >> and what you do is you cut two openings on either side of the bottle so the mosquitos can go in and lay their eggs. then you wrap it in black tape to camouflage it so people won't mess with them or see them. and then, after you tape it, all you have to do is hang it up, and then, in a matter -- in a week or so, you'll have mosquito larvae. >> okay, so they have bottles filled with mosquito larvae. what then? back at the classroom, the students are raising fish called fathead minnows. and guess what fathead minnows just love to eat -- mosquito larvae. >> we started off with about 10 tanks and 35 fathead minnows, and as you can, we grew pretty much more than that. >> they then take the minnows to the reservoir, where they have more tanks set up on an island. >> and in that blue tank -- i know it's hard to see, but we have minnows in there, and we feed the minnows our mosquito larvae, and that gets rid of a whole generation of mosquitos.

>> they offered us the chance to go with them to check on the tanks, but we said, "tanks, but no, tanks." anyway, the team entered their project in a competition run by lexus and scholastic. their "put a hole in it" campaign was one of the winners in the environmental-scholarship awards. >> well, they're ecstatic, of course, and i think they were a little overwhelmed, realizing that they had won. and it was a good thing, too, 'cause they found out that they'd won some scholarship money, which all of them need. even though they're only in eighth grade, they realize, farther down the road, school's going to be expensive. >> extremely, extremely proud of them. we've collectively grown as a family for the last three years. >> and thanks to that science-project family, the community has a lot fewer mosquitos. >> every state has one, but most of us don't know why they look the way they do. here's brandon with "flag facts."

>> oregon's state flag pays tribute to its bountiful landscape and early settlers. >> in oregon, you have the only flag to include two different images on the front side and the reverse side. you have a beaver on the reverse side. then on the front, you have the conestoga wagon for the pioneers. >> other images in the heart-shaped center are a sunset, a mountain peak, a forest, a plow, sheaths of wheat, and a pickax. the 33 stars represent oregon's place as our 33rd state. but the most interesting elements may be the two ships at sea. one is a british warship sailing away from the shore, while the other is an american merchant ship arriving. they symbolize the transfer of power from british rule to american independence. above it all, the american eagle protectively spreads its wings.

and, as randy said, oregon's state animal, the beaver, gets one whole side of the flag to itself. no other american animal can make that claim. with "flag facts," i'm brandon. >> cinnamon rolls -- they may seem hard to make, but you'd be surprised how easy they are with my four-ingredient recipe. barry, time is running out. according to my calculations, 1 in 5 kids in america struggles with hunger. how can so many children face hunger, when there is more than enough food to feed them all? doo ba baba doo! you're right, barry! baba doo! we can help solve hunger by teaming up with feeding america to get food to hungry kids in communities across the country. announcer: help flint and the feeding america network of food banks get food to the people who need it in your community. find your local feeding america food bank at feedingamerica.org/hunger together, we're feeding america!

of the united states of america... and to the republic for which it stands... one nation, under god... indivisible, with liberty... and justice for all. our disabled veterans pledged to sacrifice life and limb to ensure our way of life. now, they deserve our support. find out how you can help disabled veterans in your community. visit dav.org. tell you about a new medical website designed especially for older folks. website you say! i can't work on computers, they're not senior-friendly. blah, blah, blah. but the national institutes of health fixed all that. now you can make the type bigger, increase contrast, even make it talk to you. just go to nihseniorhealth.gov and get the best medical information available anywhere. nih seniorhealth.gov. built with you in mind.

>> "speak of the week" is when we get to hear what you have to say. here's this week's question.

>> clark kent has them. peter parker has them. even tony stark has them -- well, sort of. if you could have a superpower, what would it be? >> it would be the power to read people's minds so i could make decisions with more accurate information. >> the ability to fly, because i've always liked planes, and i think it would be really great to just go anywhere i want without roads. >> fly, 'cause then you could, like, fly around the world, and it would be really cool. >> teleportation, 'cause i'm always late to everywhere. i don't think i've been on time anytime this week. >> i would be invisible. >> super speed, 'cause i play football, so, you know, i need to be fast. >> you know, i actually do have a superpower -- the ability to disappear. [ snaps fingers ] with "speak of the week," i'm eden. >> "teen kids news" got a chance to visit the culinary institute of america and get some recipes and cooking

tips. here's a taste of what we learned. >> hi. today we're gonna make cinnamon rolls. it's a great recipe for people that are new to the kitchen, and it's really easy. first thing we're gonna do is we're gonna go ahead and preheat ou [ knob clicks ] the next thing we're gonna do is we're gonna take our bread. now, i'm using white bread right now, but we could use whole-wheat bread. whole-wheat bread would be a healthier alternative. you can also use pumpkin bread. first thing we're gonna do to our bread is we're gonna cut off the crusts. i'm gonna take my knife, and i'm just gonna start to cut off the crusts, making sure my hands are way out of the way of that knife. next thing i'm gonna do is i'm gonna take my rolling pin. and what i'm gonna do is i'm gonna roll out this bread so it's nice and flat. it's gonna make it easier for us to roll up a little bit later. next thing i'm gonna do is we're gonna give it a little brush of melted butter. i just have a little ramekin here with some butter in it, and we're gonna put a nice, even

layer, starting from the top to the bottom. just a little bit will do you. you don't want to put too much on here. next step is we're gonna take our brown sugar. i have just regular brown sugar here, but you could use honey. just make sure it's nice and even, top to bottom. last but not least, we're gonna put a little bit of ground cinnamon. and, again, just a dash will do you. you don't want to put too much on there. once our bread's all seasoned up, we're gonna start rolling up our cinnamon roll. and to do that, all you do is you take the bottom, and you start rolling it up, little by little, starting from the bottom, all the way toward the top. i'm taking time just to roll it up nice and even. when you get to the top, we're gonna go ahead and pinch that seam closed so it doesn't come undone when cooking it. and then we're gonna roll it on its side and just even it out a little bit. i'm gonna take my chef's knife again, and we're gonna go ahead and just trim off the ends a

little bit -- make them look a little bit nicer. and then we're gonna cut about one-inch cinnamon rolls. should be able to get about four out of the entire roll. i'm gonna take the cinnamon rolls, and we're gonna go ahead and put them on our greased baking sheet. i'm gonna take this, and we're gonna go ahead and put it right in the oven. these have been in the oven for about three to four minutes now, and they're looking nice and golden-brown, so i'm gonna go ahead and take them out. we're gonna let these cool off for about 30 seconds. okay, they're cool enough to pick up, so we're gonna go ahead and put them on our plate so we can go ahead and share them with our friends and family. and there you go. that's how we make cinnamon rolls in less than 10 minutes. from the culinary institute of america, for "teen kids news," i'm steve. mmm. >> coming up, we go to the circus, and i get to meet an elephant.

music i want some more. what's he doing? please sir, i want some more. more? he has asked for... thank you. well he did say please... yes he did. and thank you. please and thank you. pass it on. (crowd of children) thank you.

(crowd of children) thank you. um]um] ♪[tum] ♪[tum] ♪[tum] ♪[tum] ♪[tum] ♪[tum] [phone ring,] car brakes hard [phone ring] [car crash] glass shatters [sirens] this video was submitted by a student through the safety scholars program. for more information on teen safety visit driversedge.org.

>> who doesn't love the circus? alexa visited one that bills itself as having a lot of soul. >> [ vocalizing ] >> when you go to the circus, you expect to see acrobats, wild animals, and other incredible acts from faraway countries. as zeke explained to me, the universoul circus certainly has all that. >> we bring different people from china. we bring them from africa. we bring them from brazil. we bring them from france. jean claude -- he's out of france. we go to africa. we go all over the world. >> ♪ lean back, lean back ♪ i said, my...don't dance ♪ just pull up our pants >> what makes this circus different from other circuses? >> what makes it different to me is that it's more interactive. you're not just sitting out there, looking at the show. you actually become a part of the show. we get kids in the audience dancing. that's one of my thrills. >> as one of the cohosts, zeke interacts with the audience

throughout the show. he even plays "simon says"... but with a bit of a twist. >> simon says, "open your legs like this. bend down." simon says, "arms out to the side." simon says, "wiggle your fingers like this." simon says, "swim like this." and we're going bump, da-dun, da-dun, da-dun, dun-dun, dun-dun, dun. and that's a swag surf. you got it. simon says, "swag surf." bow! alexis, you got it. >> [ chuckles ] >> booyah! >> ever wonder why circuses have rings? it's because the ring is the best way for riders to do tricks on cantering horses. why did you want to join the circus? >> well, i'm glad for the opportunity to showcase my country's talent and to do different stuff at the same time. >> so, you actually get to ride this elephant behind us? what's that like? >> yes, i do. it's different, because it's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. it's a little challenging.

the elephants have a mind of their own, but it's a great opportunity. this is my beautiful elephant. >> in addition to riding an elephant, she's also a caribbean dancer and showgirl. so, what does it take to be a showgirl? >> first you need one of these beautiful headpieces. >> wow. >> can i put it on you? >> i would love that. >> okay. >> wow. this is big. i feel like a bird. could you teach me some of the moves that you do on the elephant? >> sure. i can teach you one or two moves. >> maybe i can practice them on the ground while you go on the elephant. >> [ chuckles ] >> [ chuckles ] >> hit, hit. you got that? hit, hit. pose. around. >> just watching her made my head spin. i was happy to make the elephant's acquaintance from safely on the ground. hi. wow. and that's its nose? >> that's his trunk.

>> okay. >> or aikea. or aikea. >> can i pet it? >> sure. >> aikea. wow. [ chuckles ] it's so -- [ chuckles ] it's pointing its nose at me. it's so big and pretty. i love the headpiece that it wears. it's so glittery. this circus not only prides itself on being interactive and entertaining -- it's also proud of the messages it sends to kids in the audience. >> we got educational things where we'll have a kid's pledge where we do a model thing where we keep them to stay away from drugs, love your family, and always believe in yourself, and anything in life that you want to accomplish, you can, too, accomplish. >> part traditional circus and part cultural celebration -- the universoul circle is all fun. for "teen kids news," i'm alexa. >> well, that wraps it up for this week's "teen kids news," but we'll be back next week, so see you then.

>> write to us at... here's a shout-out to pr newswire for including "teen kids news" on their big screen in times square, new york city.

"animal adventures" is brought to you by anheuser-busch theme parks -- a pledge and a promise, hoping to preserve the world we share. hanna: the manatee mystery -- what took the life of more than 150 of florida's gentle giants? [ african tribal music plays ]