These 50 science trivia for kids questions come with checked answers, grouped into five topics (space, living things, the human body, Earth and weather, and matter and forces) and labeled by age, from easy questions for 5 year olds to harder ones for 11 to 14 year olds. Every answer was checked against sources such as NASA, NOAA and the Natural History Museum, and we left out popular “facts” that turn out to be myths.
Science trivia for kids: how to use the five rounds
Each of the five rounds has 10 questions: 4 easy, 3 medium and 3 hard. The age label after each question is a guide, not a rule. A space-mad 7 year old may sail through the hard space round, so mix and match to suit your group.
| Level | Ages | Questions | Good for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Easy | 5 to 7 | 20 | Reading aloud with picture clues, early years classes |
| Medium | 8 to 10 | 15 | Class quizzes, car journeys, family games night |
| Hard | 11 to 14 | 15 | Tie-breakers, science clubs, older siblings |
These science trivia questions for kids work best read aloud, with about 20 seconds for each. For a class or party, split into teams and read the answers at the end of each round, so the quiz becomes a short lesson as well as a game.
Round one: space and the solar system
Space questions are usually the favorite round of any science trivia for kids quiz. These are based on NASA’s solar system pages, which confirm that our solar system has eight planets and that Venus is the hottest planet, even though Mercury is closer to the Sun.
- Which planet is closest to the Sun? (Ages 5 to 7)
Answer: Mercury - What is the biggest planet in our solar system? (Ages 5 to 7)
Answer: Jupiter - Is the Sun a planet, a moon or a star? (Ages 5 to 7)
Answer: A star - Which planet is known as the Red Planet? (Ages 5 to 7)
Answer: Mars - How many planets are there in our solar system? (Ages 8 to 10)
Answer: Eight - Who was the first person to walk on the Moon, and in which year? (Ages 8 to 10)
Answer: Neil Armstrong, in 1969 (Apollo 11) - Which planet is the second largest in our solar system? (Ages 8 to 10)
Answer: Saturn - Which planet is the hottest, even though it is not the closest to the Sun? (Ages 11 to 14)
Answer: Venus, at about 467 °C, because its thick atmosphere traps heat - In which year was Pluto reclassified as a dwarf planet? (Ages 11 to 14)
Answer: 2006 - Does sunlight take about 8 seconds, 8 minutes or 8 hours to reach Earth? (Ages 11 to 14)
Answer: About 8 minutes
For question 10: the Sun is about 150 million kilometers away and light travels about 300,000 kilometers every second, so sunlight takes about 8 minutes and 20 seconds to reach us.
Science trivia with answers: how long sunlight takes to reach each planet
Question 10 asks how long sunlight takes to reach Earth. This table works out the same sum for all eight planets. Light travels about 299,792 kilometers every second, so we divided each planet’s average distance from the Sun by that speed (one astronomical unit, or AU, is the average Earth to Sun distance):
| Planet | Average distance from the Sun (AU) | Distance (million km) | Time for sunlight to arrive |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mercury | 0.387 | 58 million km | 3.2 minutes |
| Venus | 0.723 | 108 million km | 6.0 minutes |
| Earth | 1.000 | 150 million km | 8.3 minutes |
| Mars | 1.524 | 228 million km | 12.7 minutes |
| Jupiter | 5.203 | 778 million km | 43.3 minutes |
| Saturn | 9.537 | 1427 million km | 1 h 19 min |
| Uranus | 19.190 | 2871 million km | 2 h 40 min |
| Neptune | 30.070 | 4498 million km | 4 h 10 min |
Sunlight reaches Earth in about 8 minutes and 20 seconds, Mars in about 12 and a half minutes, and Jupiter in about 43 minutes. Neptune is so far away that sunlight needs about 4 hours and 10 minutes.
These numbers make a good extra round of science trivia with answers, because children can check them with the sum distance divided by speed. A follow-up for kids aged 11 to 14: if the Sun suddenly went dark, how long would people on Earth keep seeing it? (About 8 minutes, until the last light that left the Sun arrived.)
Animals, plants and other living things
This round covers life cycles, food chains and how plants make food. It pairs well with a life cycle worksheet afterwards. For question 19, London’s Natural History Museum tells the story of Hope, its 25.2-meter blue whale skeleton.
- What is a baby frog called? (Ages 5 to 7)
Answer: A tadpole - How many legs does an insect have? (Ages 5 to 7)
Answer: Six - How many legs does a spider have? (Ages 5 to 7)
Answer: Eight - What do plants need from the Sun to make their food? (Ages 5 to 7)
Answer: Light (sunlight) - What is the process plants use to make food from light, water and carbon dioxide? (Ages 8 to 10)
Answer: Photosynthesis - What do we call an animal that eats only plants? (Ages 8 to 10)
Answer: A herbivore - What is the fastest land animal? (Ages 8 to 10)
Answer: The cheetah - What is the green pigment in leaves that captures light? (Ages 11 to 14)
Answer: Chlorophyll - What is the largest animal alive today? (Ages 11 to 14)
Answer: The blue whale - What do we call animals that do not have a backbone? (Ages 11 to 14)
Answer: Invertebrates
Watch out for question 13: spiders are not insects. They are arachnids, with eight legs and two main body parts, while insects have six legs and three body parts.
Questions about the human body
Children love questions about their own bodies. The skin counts as the largest organ, and tooth enamel is the hardest substance in the body, harder than bone. The stapes is one of three tiny bones in the middle ear, and the Britannica entry on the stapes explains how it passes sound on to the inner ear.
- Which organ pumps blood around your body? (Ages 5 to 7)
Answer: The heart - Which organs fill with air when you breathe in? (Ages 5 to 7)
Answer: The lungs - Which sense do you use your tongue for? (Ages 5 to 7)
Answer: Taste - What is the frame of bones inside your body called? (Ages 5 to 7)
Answer: The skeleton - What is the largest organ of the human body? (Ages 8 to 10)
Answer: The skin - Which organ inside your skull controls your whole body? (Ages 8 to 10)
Answer: The brain - Which blood cells carry oxygen around the body? (Ages 8 to 10)
Answer: Red blood cells - What is the smallest bone in the human body? (Ages 11 to 14)
Answer: The stapes (stirrup), in the middle ear - What is the hardest substance in the human body? (Ages 11 to 14)
Answer: Tooth enamel - Which pair of organs filters the blood to make urine? (Ages 11 to 14)
Answer: The kidneys
Earth, oceans and weather
This round of science trivia for kids links nicely to weather topics at school. According to NOAA, the Pacific is the largest and deepest ocean basin, and its JetStream guide explains that almost all weather happens in the troposphere, the lowest layer of the atmosphere.
- What is frozen water called? (Ages 5 to 7)
Answer: Ice - Which instrument measures temperature? (Ages 5 to 7)
Answer: A thermometer - What is the largest ocean on Earth? (Ages 5 to 7)
Answer: The Pacific Ocean - Which mountain is the highest above sea level? (Ages 5 to 7)
Answer: Mount Everest - What causes day and night? (Ages 8 to 10)
Answer: Earth spinning on its axis - What do we call a scientist who studies and forecasts the weather? (Ages 8 to 10)
Answer: A meteorologist - Which instrument measures air pressure? (Ages 8 to 10)
Answer: A barometer - What are the three main types of rock? (Ages 11 to 14)
Answer: Igneous, sedimentary and metamorphic - What is it called when water vapor cools and turns into tiny droplets, forming clouds? (Ages 11 to 14)
Answer: Condensation - In which layer of the atmosphere does almost all weather happen? (Ages 11 to 14)
Answer: The troposphere
Matter, forces and energy
The last round mixes chemistry and physics. Question 50 is a favorite tie-breaker: −40 °C is exactly the same temperature as −40 °F, the only point where the two scales meet.
- Which force pulls things down toward the ground? (Ages 5 to 7)
Answer: Gravity - Which does a magnet attract: a wooden spoon, a plastic cup or an iron nail? (Ages 5 to 7)
Answer: The iron nail - What are the three everyday states of matter? (Ages 5 to 7)
Answer: Solid, liquid and gas - Which travels faster, light or sound? (Ages 5 to 7)
Answer: Light, which is why you see lightning before you hear thunder - At what temperature does pure water boil at sea level? (Ages 8 to 10)
Answer: 100 °C (212 °F) - What is the chemical formula for water? (Ages 8 to 10)
Answer: H2O - What is the chemical symbol for gold? (Ages 8 to 10)
Answer: Au - What is the chemical symbol for sodium? (Ages 11 to 14)
Answer: Na - What is the unit of force, named after Isaac Newton? (Ages 11 to 14)
Answer: The newton (N) - At what temperature are the Celsius and Fahrenheit scales equal? (Ages 11 to 14)
Answer: −40 degrees
If your group enjoyed questions 47 and 48, the chemical symbols Au (from the Latin aurum) and Na (from the Latin natrium) are good ways into the periodic table.
Science myths we left out of the quiz
Many lists of science trivia for kids repeat “facts” that are wrong or oversimplified. We checked the common ones and left them out. Use this table as a bonus true-or-false round: every statement in the first column is false.
| Popular claim | What is actually true | Source |
|---|---|---|
| You can see the Great Wall of China from the Moon | It is not visible from the Moon and is hard or impossible to spot from orbit without powerful lenses | NASA |
| Lightning never strikes the same place twice | It often does, especially tall, pointed objects; the Empire State Building is hit about 23 times a year on average | US National Weather Service |
| Mercury is the hottest planet because it is closest to the Sun | Venus is hotter, because its thick atmosphere traps heat | NASA |
| Pluto is the ninth planet | Pluto was reclassified as a dwarf planet in 2006 | NASA |
| Every adult has exactly 206 bones | 206 is the usual count, but adults have between 206 and 213 bones | Cleveland Clinic |
We also skipped “How many continents are there?”. The answer depends on which model a country teaches: some count seven, others six or five. Trivia needs one clear answer, so questions like that are best kept for classroom discussion.
How to run a kids science trivia quiz in 30 minutes
- Pick three rounds. For ages 5 to 7, use only the easy questions from each round. For mixed ages, give each team one younger and one older player.
- Prepare answer sheets. Number 1 to 10 on paper for each round, or print a blank sheet from the printable paper section.
- Read each question twice. Allow about 20 seconds, then move on. Keep a steady pace.
- Mark after each round. Read the answers aloud and add one sentence of explanation. This is where most of the learning happens.
- Use a tie-breaker. Question 50 (−40 degrees) or “Name the eight planets in order” both work well.
- Finish with a prize. A printable award certificate for the winning team, or for the best team name.
Hosting a quiz for a festival or party too? Our Diwali quiz questions guide uses the same round-by-round format, and our birthday party games for kids include quick quiz ideas.
Easy science trivia for kids: how long does a quiz take?
Parents and teachers often ask how many rounds to plan. Using 20 seconds a question and about 90 seconds to read the answers after each round, this table shows how long easy science trivia for kids takes when you use the rounds as written:
| Rounds | Questions | Asking time at 20 seconds each | Reading the answers (1.5 min a round) | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 10 | 3.3 min | 1.5 min | 4.8 min |
| 2 | 20 | 6.7 min | 3.0 min | 9.7 min |
| 3 | 30 | 10.0 min | 4.5 min | 14.5 min |
| 4 | 40 | 13.3 min | 6.0 min | 19.3 min |
| 5 | 50 | 16.7 min | 7.5 min | 24.2 min |
Three rounds, which is 30 questions, take about 14 and a half minutes of quiz time, and all five rounds about 24 minutes. A 30-minute lesson slot therefore has room for the whole set plus a tie-breaker, or for three rounds and a discussion of the myths table.
If you add team names, scoring and a prize, allow 10 more minutes. For a younger group, use only the 20 easy questions: four per round, five rounds, about 10 minutes of quiz time, which makes kids science trivia short enough for a car journey.
Common mistakes when writing science trivia questions for kids
- Questions with two right answers. “What do caterpillars turn into?” could be a butterfly or a moth. Choose questions with one clear answer.
- Too many hard questions for young players. Keep most questions at the easy level for under-8s so everyone scores.
- Out-of-date facts. Older books still call Pluto a planet. Check answers against current sources.
- No explanation. A quick “why” after each answer turns science trivia for kids into real learning.
More science quizzes and worksheets on PrintSheetLab
If your children enjoyed these questions, carry on with our free online quizzes and science makers.
| Topic | Online quiz or game | Printable follow-up |
|---|---|---|
| Space | Solar system quiz | Solar system worksheets |
| Living things | Animal quiz for kids | Life cycle worksheets |
| Human body | Human body quiz | Science worksheets |
| Earth and weather | Weather bingo | Weather worksheets |
| Matter and chemistry | Element symbols quiz | Printable periodic table |
For a mixed round, the general knowledge quiz for kids and the full list of quizzes for kids give you plenty more.
Sources
Space: NASA Science pages on the solar system, Venus, Pluto and the Sun. Earth and weather: NOAA National Ocean Service and NOAA JetStream; US National Weather Service. Living things: Natural History Museum, London. Human body: Cleveland Clinic and Encyclopaedia Britannica.
Frequently asked questions
8 quick answers
What are some easy science trivia questions for kids?
Try: Which planet is closest to the Sun? (Mercury.) How many legs does an insect have? (Six.) Which organ pumps blood? (The heart.) Which force pulls things toward the ground? (Gravity.)
What are some hard science trivia questions for kids?
Good hard questions include: What is the smallest bone in the body? (The stapes.) In which layer of the atmosphere does almost all weather happen? (The troposphere.) At what temperature are Celsius and Fahrenheit equal? (−40 degrees.)
What age is science trivia for kids suitable for?
The easy questions suit ages 5 to 7, the medium questions ages 8 to 10 and the hard questions ages 11 to 14. Mixed-age teams let everyone join in.
Is Pluto a planet?
No. The International Astronomical Union reclassified Pluto as a dwarf planet in 2006, so our solar system has eight planets.
Why is Venus hotter than Mercury?
Venus has a thick atmosphere that traps heat, so its surface reaches about 467 °C, even though Mercury is closer to the Sun.
How do you make a kids science trivia quiz fair for mixed ages?
Use mixed-age teams, start each round with easy questions, and let younger players answer the easy questions first before older teammates join in.
How long does it take sunlight to reach each planet?
In our quiz it is about 8 minutes and 20 seconds to Earth, 12 and a half minutes to Mars, 43 minutes to Jupiter and about 4 hours 10 minutes to Neptune.
How long does a science trivia for kids quiz take?
Thirty questions take about 14 and a half minutes and all fifty about 24 minutes, with 20 seconds a question and 90 seconds to read each round of answers.