75 Science Trivia Questions and Answers for Students
November 7, 2024
There’s a clear reason why Jeopardy! has been on television for nearly sixty years: trivia is a fun and fast-paced way to spark your curiosity and make learning fun. Whether it’s a team activity or a one-on-one battle, there’s nothing like a little healthy competition to help you commit facts to memory. Below, we’ve gathered 75 fascinating (and often surprising!) science trivia questions for kids that are sure to get young learners excited about scientific topics. Whether you’re looking for a classroom activity for students or a fun at-home learning activity for your kids, these science trivia questions are a great way to make a pop quiz more exciting or open a gateway into deeper knowledge.
Below, we’ve gathered a wide range of science trivia questions for kids that span across scientific fields. Keep scrolling for questions and answers on each of these essential topics:
- Science Trivia Questions—Biology
- Science Trivia Questions—Earth Sciences
- Science Trivia Questions—Astronomy
- Science Trivia Questions—Anatomy
- Science Trivia Questions—Chemistry
- Science Trivia Questions—Physics
- Science Trivia Questions—Challenging Questions (High School Level)
- Science Trivia Questions—Scientists and Scientific Discoveries
- Science Trivia Questions—More Resources
Science Trivia Questions—Biology
1) What is the oldest known living thing on Earth?
Answer: A bristlecone pine in California is about 4,600 years old.
2) What two mammals lay eggs?
Answer: The platypus and the echidna.
3) What is it called when plants convert sunlight into energy?
Answer: Photosynthesis.
4) What is the largest mammal on earth?
Answer: The blue whale.
5) What is the process called when a caterpillar transforms into a butterfly?
Answer:
6) True or false: All living things are made up of cells.
Answer: True.
7) What is the name of the structures that carry genetic information in our cells?
Answer: DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid).
8) True or false: Birds and insects are the only animals that can fly.
Answer: False, bats can also fly.
9) What is it called when a lizard regrows its tail?
Answer: Epimorphic regeneration.
10) Is a tomato a fruit or a vegetable?
Answer: A fruit. Fruits contain seeds and grow from the flowering part of a plant. A vegetable is an edible part of a plant.
Science Trivia Questions—Earth Sciences
11) What is the largest ocean on Earth?
Answer: The Pacific Ocean.
12) Which is hotter, the center of the Earth or the center of the Sun?
Answer: The center of the Sun. Its center is about 27 million degrees Fahrenheit. The center of the Earth is about 9,400 degrees Fahrenheit.
13) What is the largest desert on Earth?
Answer: Antarctica. Because it receives less than 6 inches of rain per year, Antarctica counts as a desert. The Sahara Desert is the second largest.
14) The mass of the Earth is mostly made up of these two elements.
Answer: Oxygen (30%) and Iron (32%).
15) What percentage of the Earth’s surface is covered in water?
Answer: 71%.
List (Continued)
16) Cumulus, cirrus, and stratus are three types of what?
Answer: Clouds.
17) Which country has the most active volcanoes?
Answer: Indonesia.
18) What is the world’s largest river by volume?
Answer: The Amazon River.
19) What is the world’s largest tree by volume?
Answer: The Giant Sequoia.
20) What causes ocean tides? Answer:
The gravitational pull of the Moon.
Science Trivia Questions—Astronomy
21) What’s the largest planet in our solar system?
Answer: Jupiter.
22) Which planet in our solar system has the most moons?
Answer: Saturn. It has 146 moons.
23) Which planets in our solar system are gaseous planets?
Answer: Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune, Uranus.
24) How old is our sun?
Answer: 4.6 billion years.
25) What causes an aurora?
Answer: Charged particles from solar winds that slow down when they reach our atmosphere.
List (Continued)
26) How long does a day on Mercury last?
Answer: 59 Earth days.
27) How old is the universe?
Answer: About 13.8 billion years old.
28) True or false: There is no gravity in space.
Answer: False, there is gravity in space, but it is much weaker than on Earth.
29) Why is there water on Earth?
Answer: It arrived in comments and asteroids billions of years ago during a period called the Late Heavy Bombardment.
Science Trivia Questions—Anatomy
30) Which organ is responsible for pumping blood to the rest of the body?
Answer: The heart.
31) What’s the largest organ on the human body?
Answer: The skin.
32) What gives human hair, skin, and nails their color?
Answer: Melanin.
33) How many bones are found in the human body?
Answer: 206.
34) What is the lifespan of a human red blood cell?
Answer: About 120 days.
35) What is the rarest human blood type?
Answer: AB negative. Less than 1% of the population has this blood type.
36) How long is an adult’s large intestine?
Answer: About 5 feet.
37) What is the strongest muscle in the human body?
Answer: The jaw.
38) What part of your body helps you keep your balance?
Answer: The inner ear.
Science Trivia Questions—Chemistry
39) What is the smallest unit of matter called?
Answer: An atom.
40) What is the chemical formula for water?
Answer: H2O.
41) What is the process called when a liquid turns into a solid?
Answer: Freezing.
42) What is the process called when a gas turns into a solid without first becoming a liquid?
Answer: Deposition.
43) Which is denser, oil or water?
Answer: Oil.
44) What is the only metal that is a liquid at room temperature?
Answer: Mercury (melting point of negative 39.9 degrees Celsius).
List (Continued)
45) True or false: Saltwater has a higher boiling point than pure water.
Answer: True.
46) How many elements are there on the periodic table?
Answer: 118 elements.
47) Is a solution with a pH of 1 an acid or a base?
Answer: An acid. Solutions with a pH between 0-7 are acids. Solutions with a pH between 7-14 are bases.
Science Trivia Questions—Physics
48) What is the force that resists motion when two solid surfaces rub against each other?
Answer: Friction.
49) What is the fastest known speed in the universe?
Answer: The speed of light. The speed of light travels at 299,792,458 meters per second.
50) What is the unit for measuring electric power?
Answer: Watts.
51) What is the force that pulls objects toward the center of Earth?
Answer: Gravity.
52) True or false: Sound travels faster than light.
Answer: False. Sound moves through air at 0.3 km per second and light moves at 300,000 km per second.
53) True or false: An object with a higher temperature will not transfer heat to an object with a lower temperature.
Answer: False. The hotter object does transfer heat.
54) True or false: The larger an object’s mass, the greater its gravitational pull.
Answer: True.
55) What color do you get if you mix all colors of light?
Answer: White. White objects appear white to our eyes because they reflect back all the visible wavelengths of light that shine on them.
56) How many volts of electricity can an electric eel produce?
Answer: About 800 volts.
57) Does sound travel faster in water or air?
Answer: In water. Water particles are closer together and sound travels faster through denser substances.
Science Trivia Questions—Challenging Questions (High School Level)
58) Snakes, frogs, and spiders are all ectothermic animals. What does the term ectothermic mean?
Answer: They are cold-blooded, meaning their body temperature is regulated by the temperature of their environment.
59) What is chalk made out of?
Answer: It is made out of limestone, which is a type of rock formed by the fossils of marine animals.
60) What is the chemical name for fool’s gold?
Answer: Pyrite or iron sulfide.
61) What does a Geiger counter measure?
Answer: Radiation.
62) What percentage of your brain is made up of fat?
Answer: Around 60%.
63) How many bones do sharks have in their body?
Answer: Zero. Their skeletons are made of cartilage instead of bone.
64) What color is the polar bear’s skin?
Answer: Black. Their skin helps them absorb heat from the sun so they stay warm.
65) How much does an average size (1 kilometer by 1 kilometer) cumulus cloud weigh?
Answer: 1.1 million pounds. The water they hold primarily contributes to their weight.
66) Where are grasshopper’s ears located?
Answer: On their bellies, underneath their wings.
Science Trivia Questions—Scientists and Scientific Discoveries
67) Who first proposed that the Sun is the center of our solar system?
Answer: Copernicus (1473-1543).
68) Who invented the first battery?
Answer: Count Alessandro Volta (1745-1827).
69) Who first identified the laws of motion?
Answer: Sir Isaac Newton (1643-1727).
70) Who was the Nobel Prize winning physicist who proved the theory of relativity?
Answer: Albert Einstein (1879-1955).
71) Who was the first Black female astronaut to go to space?
Answer: Mae Carol Jemison (born 1956).
72) Who was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize?
Answer: Marie Curie (1867-1934). She was also the first person to win a Nobel Prize in two different scientific fields (physics and chemistry).
73) What idea is Charles Darwin most famous for?
Answer: The theory of natural selection, also called “survival of the fittest.”
74) Who discovered penicillin?
Answer: Sir Alexander Fleming (1881-1955) accidentally discovered penicillin in 1928.
75) What female scientist’s telecommunications discoveries paved the way for inventions like the portable fax machine, fiber optic cables, and caller ID?
Answer: Shirley Ann Jackson (born 1946), the first Black woman to earn a doctorate from MIT and one of the first two Black American women to earn a doctorate in physics in the U.S.
Science Trivia Questions—More Resources
Have our science trivia questions sparked your curiosity? To learn more, dive into these other STEM-related articles:
- 101 Topics for the Science Fair
- 60 Most Interesting Technology Research Topics
- 49 Most Interesting Biology Research Topics
- 50 Best Environmental Science Research Topics
- How to Write a Lab Report – with Example/Template
