School Biology Trivia Quiz

About this quiz

This School Biology Trivia Quiz has 224 questions: 79 easy, 89 medium and 56 hard. It is free. Play it with friends in a room for 2 to 12 players, on phones or in a browser, or play it solo. Type your answers: close enough counts, so a small typo still scores.

Sample questions

20 of the 224 School biology questions in this pack. Think of your answer, then open it.

1. Touch a hot pan and your hand jerks away before your brain even knows. What is this automatic response called?

   Show answer

   Reflex

   The message goes only as far as your spinal cord and straight back, which saves precious time.

2. The picture formed at the back of your eye is actually upside down, and your brain flips it. Which light-sensitive layer is it formed on?

   Show answer

   Retina

   The lens bends light so the image lands flipped; the brain learns to turn it the right way up.

3. Which coloured ring of your eye has a pattern as unique as a fingerprint, and gets scanned by some security systems?

   Show answer

   Iris

   It's named after the Greek goddess of the rainbow, and its muscles make your pupil bigger or smaller.

4. You could swallow while standing on your head, because muscles squeeze food down to your stomach. Which tube does it travel through?

   Show answer

   Oesophagus

   It's about 25 cm long in an adult, and muscle waves push food down it in a few seconds.

5. Your left lung is a little smaller than your right one, to make room for which organ?

   Show answer

   Heart

   The left lung has a dent called the cardiac notch and only two lobes, while the right lung has three.

6. Which big seed can float across oceans for months and still sprout on a faraway beach?

   Show answer

   Coconut

   Its air-filled husk keeps it afloat, which helped the palm spread across tropical islands.

7. Your heart beats about 100,000 times a day. How many pumping chambers does it have?

   Show answer

   Four

   The two top chambers (atria) collect blood and the two bottom ones (ventricles) pump it out.

8. Goosebumps when you're scared, cold or hearing an epic song come from a rush of which 'fight or flight' hormone?

   Show answer

   Adrenaline

   In furry animals the same reflex fluffs up the fur to look bigger or trap warmth; we kept the reflex but lost the fur.

9. Drop iodine on a slice of potato and it turns blue-black. Which stored food does that show?

   Show answer

   Starch

   Plants store spare sugar as starch; in school, leaves kept in the dark for a day fail this test.

10. Which is your body's biggest artery, about as wide as a garden hose, arching out of the top of your heart?

    Show answer

    Aorta

    It carries oxygen-rich blood from the left side of the heart, then branches to feed the whole body.

11. Which part of the brain, tucked at the back, keeps your balance, and is one reason drunk people wobble?

    Show answer

    Cerebellum

    Alcohol upsets it quickly, which is why police roadside tests ask people to walk in a straight line.

12. Each of your eyes has a small patch with no light sensors, where the nerve leaves for the brain. What is it called?

    Show answer

    Blind spot

    You never notice it because your brain fills in the gap using the other eye and nearby detail.

13. Which snail-shaped part of your inner ear turns sound into nerve signals?

    Show answer

    Cochlea

    Tiny hair cells inside it wobble in its fluid; loud noise can damage them for good.

14. When food 'goes down the wrong way', it has slipped into which tube instead of your food pipe?

    Show answer

    Windpipe

    That sudden coughing fit is your body's reflex for blasting it back out.

15. The 'lub-dub' sound of a heartbeat is made by which parts snapping shut?

    Show answer

    Valves

    'Lub' is the valves between the upper and lower chambers closing; 'dub' is the exit valves shutting a moment later.

16. Which little flap of tissue folds down over your windpipe every time you swallow?

    Show answer

    Epiglottis

    It's why you can't breathe and swallow at the same moment; when it's too slow, you choke and cough.

17. Which are your body's tiniest blood vessels, so narrow that red blood cells have to squeeze through them?

    Show answer

    Capillaries

    Their walls are just one cell thick, so oxygen and food pass straight through to the cells around them.

18. Your fingers go wrinkly in a long bath. Scientists think it gives you better what, like the treads on a car tyre in the rain?

    Show answer

    Grip

    In a 2013 test, people moved wet marbles faster with wrinkly fingers; the nervous system, not soaking, causes the wrinkles.

19. Which blood group can be given to almost anyone in an emergency, earning it the nickname 'universal donor'?

    Show answer

    O negative

    Its red cells carry none of the A, B or RhD markers, so the patient's immune system has nothing to attack.

20. Bacteria multiply by simply splitting in two. What's this called?

    Show answer

    Binary fission

    In good conditions some bacteria can split every 20 minutes, so one can become millions in a few hours.

Play free with friends

How to play with friends

1. Start a room. Open this quiz in Braggit, already picked for you. It plays in any browser or the app.
2. Invite your friends. Share the room code or link. Friends join from their own phones, in the same room or over a video call.
3. Type, wager, brag. Everyone types an answer before the timer runs out. Wager points when you are sure, then share your brag card.

Questions about this quiz

More quizzes like this

• School Chemistry: Bonding Time School chemistry · 158 questions
• School Physics: Feel the Force School physics · 167 questions
• Doctor's Orders: Medical Trivia Medicine · 196 questions
• Inventions: Eureka! Inventions · 112 questions
• Space: Look Up Space · 196 questions
• Aviation: Wheels Up Aviation · 171 questions

All Science & Nature quizzes · All quizzes · Trivia with friends