Elementary Quiz Bowl Questions: Six Practice Rounds for Grades 3 to 5

Twelve toss-ups a round, a two-part bonus behind each one, and the reason under every answer.

Question set

Question 1 of 36

Toss-up 1, science: This process takes place inside tiny green parts of a plant cell called chloroplasts. It takes in carbon dioxide and water, and it gives off oxygen. Name this process that green plants use to make their food from sunlight.

Pick an answer, then press Check answer. Then you see Correct or Not quite, with the reason. Keys: 1 to 4 pick, Enter checks.

Scored round: 36 questions, no time limit.

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Print covers the next 36 questions. Share this set copies a link to the same questions in the same order.

Unofficial practice questions, not affiliated with any quiz bowl league, tournament or question company. Question bank last checked September 19, 2026.

Next step More science questions for kidsStep up to the middle school pack

Sample pick Bonus 12, part A, on famous flights: The Wright brothers worked in a bicycle shop in Dayton, Ohio. Near which seaside town did they make the first controlled, powered airplane flights on December 17, 1903?

Elementary Quiz Bowl Questions: Six Practice Rounds for Grades 3 to 5: how it works

These 216 elementary quiz bowl questions for grades 3 to 5 sit under six buttons, Round 1 to Round 6: 12 toss-ups a round, each with a two-part bonus. Read the toss-up aloud, stop when a player buzzes, and tap the choice they said.

How a round runs

Each round is 36 cards in match order: a toss-up, then bonus parts A and B on a linked theme. A toss-up runs from its hardest clue to its easiest, so the player who knows more can buzz sooner. Nobody confers on a toss-up; teammates may talk on a bonus. Leave Shuffle questions and choices unticked, or bonuses drift from their toss-ups. Keep team scores on paper: the page counts answers, not teams.

Read the full guide

Print a round, or drill alone

For a paper match, pick a round, then press Print question sheet and Print answer key while question 1 is on the card. The sheet holds all 36 with lettered choices. Drilling alone, press Scored round for all 36 with marks held to the end.

Tips

  • Say 'pencil and paper ready' before a math toss-up, and give players a few seconds longer to buzz.
  • A wrong buzz before the question ends costs 5 points in some leagues and nothing in others. Settle it before toss-up 1.
  • Wrong answers wait under Missed. Run that pile the night before a meet.

Questions and answers

What grade level are these quiz bowl questions?

Grades 3 to 5. Of the 216, 57 are easy review, 157 sit at grade level and 2 are a stretch, and the last clue of every toss-up is one most 4th graders can reach. The levels are our estimate and follow no official curriculum.

How is quiz bowl scored?

Commonly a toss-up is worth 10, and the team that answers it earns a bonus. Here a bonus has two parts of 10, so a perfect cycle is 30. Many leagues use three-part bonuses. Break a tie with extra toss-ups. Your league's rules win.

How were the answers checked?

Each fact was checked on September 19, 2026 by reading the sentence that states it in the Wikipedia article linked under the answer, and arithmetic was checked by a script. Populations, changing records, living people, and film, TV and brand names are left out.

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Round 1: all 36 questions with answers

Math 6

  • Bonus 2, part A, on square numbers: What is 9 squared? Answer: 81. Source: Worked out by calculation and checked by a script
  • Bonus 2, part B, on square numbers: What is the square root of 121? Answer: 11. Source: Worked out by calculation and checked by a script
  • Bonus 7, part A, on a rectangle 8 centimeters long and 5 centimeters wide: What is the perimeter of a rectangle 8 centimeters long and 5 centimeters wide? Answer: 26 centimeters. Source: Worked out by calculation and checked by a script
  • Bonus 7, part B, on a rectangle 8 centimeters long and 5 centimeters wide: What is the area of a rectangle 8 centimeters long and 5 centimeters wide? Answer: 40 square centimeters. Source: Worked out by calculation and checked by a script
  • Toss-up 2, math: Add the counting numbers from 1 through 8 and you get this number. It is also 6 squared, and it is the number of inches in a yard. Name this number, which equals 4 times 9. Answer: 36. Source: Worked out by calculation and checked by a script; background: Wikipedia: Yard
  • Toss-up 7, math: For a circle, this measurement has its own name, the circumference. For a square, you can find it by multiplying the length of one side by 4. Name this measurement, the distance all the way around a flat shape. Answer: Perimeter. Source: Wikipedia: Perimeter

Science 6

  • Bonus 1, part A, on flowers: Which brightly colored parts of a flower help to draw in bees and butterflies? Answer: The petals. Source: Wikipedia: Petal
  • Bonus 1, part B, on flowers: Which part of a flower makes the pollen? Answer: The stamen. Source: Wikipedia: Stamen
Show all 36 questions (28 more)

Science, continued

  • Bonus 8, part A, on moons: Ganymede is the largest moon in the solar system. Which planet does it orbit? Answer: Jupiter. Source: Wikipedia: Ganymede (moon)
  • Bonus 8, part B, on moons: About how long does the Moon take to travel once around Earth? Answer: About one month. Source: Wikipedia: Moon
  • Toss-up 1, science: This process takes place inside tiny green parts of a plant cell called chloroplasts. It takes in carbon dioxide and water, and it gives off oxygen. Name this process that green plants use to make their food from sunlight. Answer: Photosynthesis. Source: Wikipedia: Photosynthesis
  • Toss-up 8, science: The Cassini spacecraft studied this planet, and the Huygens probe landed on Titan, its largest moon. It is the sixth planet from the Sun and the second largest in the solar system. Name this gas giant known for its bright rings. Answer: Saturn. Source: Wikipedia: Saturn

Geography 6

  • Bonus 10, part A, on Australia: Which sea lies between Australia and New Zealand? Answer: The Tasman Sea. Source: Wikipedia: Tasman Sea
  • Bonus 10, part B, on Australia: What do Australians call the vast, dry and thinly settled inland of their country? Answer: The Outback. Source: Wikipedia: Outback
  • Bonus 3, part A, on the Great Lakes: Niagara Falls lies on a short river that carries water from one Great Lake down to another. Which two lakes does it join? Answer: Lake Erie and Lake Ontario. Source: Wikipedia: Niagara River
  • Bonus 3, part B, on the Great Lakes: The Great Lakes drain into the Atlantic Ocean through which river? Answer: The St. Lawrence River. Source: Wikipedia: Great Lakes
  • Toss-up 10, geography: The highest mountain on its mainland is Mount Kosciuszko, and its capital, Canberra, is far smaller than Sydney or Melbourne. The Great Barrier Reef lies off its northeast coast. Name this country, home of the kangaroo, that shares its name with a continent. Answer: Australia. Source: Wikipedia: Australia
  • Toss-up 3, geography: This river begins at Lake Itasca in Minnesota. The Missouri River and the Ohio River both flow into it, and it passes Memphis on its way to New Orleans. Name this great river of the central United States. Answer: The Mississippi River. Source: Wikipedia: Mississippi River

History and civics 6

  • Bonus 4, part A, on the president's job: How many years does one term as president of the United States last? Answer: Four years. Source: Wikipedia: President of the United States
  • Bonus 4, part B, on the president's job: The Constitution gives the president which title as head of the armed forces? Answer: Commander in chief. Source: Wikipedia: President of the United States
  • Bonus 9, part A, on the American Revolution: In 1773, colonists boarded ships in Boston Harbor and threw chests of what into the water? Answer: Tea. Source: Wikipedia: Boston Tea Party
  • Bonus 9, part B, on the American Revolution: The last major battle of the Revolutionary War ended with a British surrender in 1781 at which Virginia town? Answer: Yorktown. Source: Wikipedia: Siege of Yorktown
  • Toss-up 4, history: As a young man he worked as a land surveyor, and in 1787 he led the Constitutional Convention. His home was Mount Vernon in Virginia, and he commanded the Continental Army in the Revolutionary War. Name this first president of the United States. Answer: George Washington. Source: Wikipedia: George Washington
  • Toss-up 9, history: It was approved in Philadelphia by the Second Continental Congress, and the largest signature on it belongs to John Hancock. Thomas Jefferson wrote most of it. Name this document of July 4, 1776, in which thirteen colonies said they were free of British rule. Answer: The Declaration of Independence. Source: Wikipedia: United States Declaration of Independence

Language arts 6

  • Bonus 12, part A, on Greek myths: Which Greek goddess of wisdom had the owl as her symbol? Answer: Athena. Source: Wikipedia: Athena
  • Bonus 12, part B, on Greek myths: In Greek myth, which monster had living snakes for hair and turned anyone who looked at her to stone? Answer: Medusa. Source: Wikipedia: Medusa
  • Bonus 5, part A, on parts of speech: In the phrase 'the tall tree', the word tall describes a noun. What part of speech is it? Answer: An adjective. Source: Wikipedia: Adjective
  • Bonus 5, part B, on parts of speech: The words and, but and or join words and sentences together. What part of speech are they? Answer: Conjunctions. Source: Wikipedia: Conjunction (grammar)
  • Toss-up 12, language arts: His parents were the Titans Cronus and Rhea, and his brothers were Poseidon and Hades. He ruled from Mount Olympus, and his weapon was the thunderbolt. Name this king of the Greek gods. Answer: Zeus. Source: Wikipedia: Zeus
  • Toss-up 5, language arts: A collective one names a whole group, such as flock or team. A proper one, such as Ohio, starts with a capital letter. Name this part of speech, a word for a person, place or thing. Answer: Noun. Source: Wikipedia: Noun

The arts 6

  • Bonus 11, part A, on light and dark colors: What do artists call a color that has been mixed with white to make it lighter, such as pink made from red? Answer: A tint. Source: Wikipedia: Tint, shade and tone
  • Bonus 11, part B, on light and dark colors: What do artists call a color that has been mixed with black to make it darker? Answer: A shade. Source: Wikipedia: Tint, shade and tone
  • Bonus 6, part A, on the string family: Which string instrument is played sitting down, with the instrument held between the knees? Answer: The cello. Source: Wikipedia: Cello
  • Bonus 6, part B, on the string family: Which is the largest and lowest-pitched string instrument played with a bow in the orchestra? Answer: The double bass. Source: Wikipedia: Double bass
  • Toss-up 11, the arts: In the color wheel that painters learn, these three colors cannot be made by mixing other paints. Mix two of them and you get a secondary color such as green, orange or purple. Name this group of three colors: red, yellow and blue. Answer: Primary colors. Source: Wikipedia: RYB color model
  • Toss-up 6, the arts: Its four strings are tuned to the notes G, D, A and E. It is the smallest and highest-pitched member of its family, and the leader of an orchestra, the concertmaster, plays it. Name this string instrument that is held under the chin and played with a bow. Answer: The violin. Source: Wikipedia: Violin

How this list was compiled: Written for this site; nothing was copied from another question set. Every toss-up, bonus part, wrong choice and explanation is our own wording. The format follows how school quiz bowl is commonly played: a toss-up for individual players, then a bonus for the team that answered it, with toss-ups written from the hardest clue to the easiest. That format was checked on 2026-09-19 against Wikipedia's Quiz bowl article (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quiz_bowl) and against an Internet Archive copy, saved 2026-09-03, of one question company's published rules page (https://web.archive.org/web/20260903040600/https://www.naqt.com/rules/); the live rules page refused automated requests, so the archived copy is what was read. Each fact was checked on 2026-09-19 against the English Wikipedia article (https://en.wikipedia.org) named and linked beside the question: the article text was fetched on 2026-09-18 or 2026-09-19, and the sentence that states each clue was read before the question was kept. Extra claims in an explanation were checked the same way. Arithmetic answers were worked out by calculation and checked by a script. Word-part meanings (tri, tele) were checked on the English Wiktionary entries. Questions were changed or dropped when the article did not state the fact plainly. Left out on purpose: populations and city rankings, records that change, living people, and film, TV, brand and league names. Levels are our estimate for grades 3 to 5: easy is review, medium is grade level, hard is a stretch. No bonus part repeats a question from this site's other trivia packs as they stood on 2026-09-19. Toss-ups share some answers with those packs, as any school set would, but each is a new question built from several clues. Licence: own work

Round 2: all 36 questions with answers

Math 6

  • Bonus 3, part A, on factors: Which one of these numbers is prime: 21, 23, 25 or 27? Answer: 23. Source: Worked out by calculation and checked by a script
  • Bonus 3, part B, on factors: How many factors does the number 12 have, counting 1 and 12? Answer: Six. Source: Worked out by calculation and checked by a script
  • Bonus 8, part A, on percents: What is 50 percent of 80? Answer: 40. Source: Worked out by calculation and checked by a script
  • Bonus 8, part B, on percents: What is 25 percent of 60? Answer: 15. Source: Worked out by calculation and checked by a script
  • Toss-up 3, math: The number 1 is not one of these, and 2 is the only even one. Each of them has exactly two factors, 1 and itself. Name this kind of whole number, which includes 3, 5, 7 and 11. Answer: Prime numbers. Source: Wikipedia: Prime number
  • Toss-up 8, math: Add up the first ten odd numbers, 1 through 19, and you get this number. It is 10 squared, and the word percent means out of this number. Name this number of cents in a dollar and years in a century. Answer: 100. Source: Worked out by calculation and checked by a script; background: Wikipedia: Percentage

Science 6

  • Bonus 12, part A, on forces: Which upward push from the water lets a heavy steel ship float? Answer: Buoyancy. Source: Wikipedia: Buoyancy
  • Bonus 12, part B, on forces: Pencil and paper ready. On the Moon, things weigh about one sixth of what they weigh on Earth. A cart of tools weighs 180 pounds on Earth. About how much would it weigh on the Moon? Answer: About 30 pounds. Source: Wikipedia: Mass versus weight
Show all 36 questions (28 more)

Science, continued

  • Bonus 5, part A, on the blood: There are four main blood groups. Three of them are A, B and AB. What is the fourth? Answer: O. Source: Wikipedia: Blood type
  • Bonus 5, part B, on the blood: What is the name of the pale yellow liquid part of blood, which carries the blood cells along? Answer: Plasma. Source: Wikipedia: Blood plasma
  • Toss-up 12, science: Galileo is said to have tested it by dropping two balls of different weights from the Leaning Tower of Pisa. On the Moon it is only about one sixth as strong as on Earth. Name this force, which keeps the planets in orbit around the Sun and pulls a dropped ball to the ground. Answer: Gravity. Source: Wikipedia: Galileo's Leaning Tower of Pisa experiment
  • Toss-up 5, science: Air reaches them through the windpipe, or trachea, which splits into two tubes called bronchi. Inside them, millions of tiny air sacs called alveoli pass oxygen into the blood. Name this pair of spongy organs in your chest that you breathe with. Answer: The lungs. Source: Wikipedia: Lung

Geography 6

  • Bonus 11, part A, on Texas: Which old Spanish mission in San Antonio was the site of a famous 13-day siege in 1836? Answer: The Alamo. Source: Wikipedia: Battle of the Alamo
  • Bonus 11, part B, on Texas: Which Texas city is home to the space center whose Mission Control guides American astronauts in flight? Answer: Houston. Source: Wikipedia: Johnson Space Center
  • Bonus 6, part A, on Africa: Which large island country lies in the Indian Ocean off the southeast coast of Africa? Answer: Madagascar. Source: Wikipedia: Madagascar
  • Bonus 6, part B, on Africa: Which lake, the largest in Africa, was named after a British queen? Answer: Lake Victoria. Source: Wikipedia: Lake Victoria
  • Toss-up 11, geography: Six national flags have flown over it, including those of Spain, France and Mexico, and for nearly ten years it was a country of its own. The Rio Grande forms its border with Mexico. Name this second-largest state, whose capital is Austin. Answer: Texas. Source: Wikipedia: Six flags over Texas
  • Toss-up 6, geography: The Aswan High Dam holds back a great river in this country, and the Suez Canal crosses its northeast corner. Its capital is Cairo. Name this African country where the Nile flows past the pyramids of Giza. Answer: Egypt. Source: Wikipedia: Egypt

History and civics 6

  • Bonus 1, part A, on the Civil War: Which general commanded the South's main army, the Army of Northern Virginia? Answer: Robert E. Lee. Source: Wikipedia: Robert E. Lee
  • Bonus 1, part B, on the Civil War: Who served as the only president of the Confederate States of America? Answer: Jefferson Davis. Source: Wikipedia: Jefferson Davis
  • Bonus 10, part A, on the Constitution: How many branches of government does the Constitution set up? Answer: Three. Source: Wikipedia: Constitution of the United States
  • Bonus 10, part B, on the Constitution: The Constitution opens with one long sentence that says why it was written. What is this opening called? Answer: The Preamble. Source: Wikipedia: Preamble to the United States Constitution
  • Toss-up 1, history: He was born in a log cabin in Kentucky and later worked as a lawyer in Springfield, Illinois. He gave the Gettysburg Address and signed the Emancipation Proclamation. Name this 16th president, who led the country through the Civil War. Answer: Abraham Lincoln. Source: Wikipedia: Abraham Lincoln
  • Toss-up 10, history: It was written in Philadelphia in the summer of 1787, and it has seven articles. Its first three words are We the People. Name this document, the highest law of the United States. Answer: The Constitution. Source: Wikipedia: Constitution of the United States

Language arts 6

  • Bonus 2, part A, on Aesop's fables: In the fable of the tortoise and the hare, why does the speedy hare lose the race? Answer: He stops for a nap. Source: Wikipedia: The Tortoise and the Hare
  • Bonus 2, part B, on Aesop's fables: A fox who cannot reach some fruit decides he never wanted it anyway. Which saying comes from this fable? Answer: Sour grapes. Source: Wikipedia: The Fox and the Grapes
  • Bonus 7, part A, on word pairs: Hot and cold are opposites. What is the term for two words with opposite meanings? Answer: Antonyms. Source: Wikipedia: Opposite
  • Bonus 7, part B, on word pairs: To, too and two sound alike but have different spellings and meanings. What are such words called? Answer: Homophones. Source: Wikipedia: Homophone
  • Toss-up 2, language arts: Ancient writers say he was a slave who lived in Greece more than 2,500 years ago. The short stories named for him star talking animals, and each one ends with a moral. Name this storyteller, whose fables include The Tortoise and the Hare and The Boy Who Cried Wolf. Answer: Aesop. Source: Wikipedia: Aesop
  • Toss-up 7, language arts: A thesaurus is a book that lists these. Glad and happy are a pair of them, and so are big and large. Name this term for words that mean the same, or nearly the same, as each other. Answer: Synonyms. Source: Wikipedia: Synonym

The arts 6

  • Bonus 4, part A, on loud and soft in music: In written music, which Italian word tells the player to play loudly? Answer: Forte. Source: Wikipedia: Dynamics (music)
  • Bonus 4, part B, on loud and soft in music: Which Italian word tells musicians to get louder little by little? Answer: Crescendo. Source: Wikipedia: Dynamics (music)
  • Bonus 9, part A, on Michelangelo: Michelangelo spent about four years painting the ceiling of which chapel in Vatican City? Answer: The Sistine Chapel. Source: Wikipedia: Sistine Chapel ceiling
  • Bonus 9, part B, on Michelangelo: Michelangelo carved his giant statue of David from a single block of which stone? Answer: Marble. Source: Wikipedia: David (Michelangelo)
  • Toss-up 4, the arts: Bartolomeo Cristofori built the first one in Italy around the year 1700. Inside it, felt-covered hammers strike the strings when the player presses a key. Name this keyboard instrument, which today has 88 black and white keys. Answer: The piano. Source: Wikipedia: Piano
  • Toss-up 9, the arts: His notebooks, written backward in mirror writing, hold drawings of flying machines. He painted The Last Supper on the wall of a dining hall in Milan. Name this artist of the Italian Renaissance, who painted the Mona Lisa. Answer: Leonardo da Vinci. Source: Wikipedia: Leonardo da Vinci

How this list was compiled: Written for this site; nothing was copied from another question set. Every toss-up, bonus part, wrong choice and explanation is our own wording. The format follows how school quiz bowl is commonly played: a toss-up for individual players, then a bonus for the team that answered it, with toss-ups written from the hardest clue to the easiest. That format was checked on 2026-09-19 against Wikipedia's Quiz bowl article (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quiz_bowl) and against an Internet Archive copy, saved 2026-09-03, of one question company's published rules page (https://web.archive.org/web/20260903040600/https://www.naqt.com/rules/); the live rules page refused automated requests, so the archived copy is what was read. Each fact was checked on 2026-09-19 against the English Wikipedia article (https://en.wikipedia.org) named and linked beside the question: the article text was fetched on 2026-09-18 or 2026-09-19, and the sentence that states each clue was read before the question was kept. Extra claims in an explanation were checked the same way. Arithmetic answers were worked out by calculation and checked by a script. Word-part meanings (tri, tele) were checked on the English Wiktionary entries. Questions were changed or dropped when the article did not state the fact plainly. Left out on purpose: populations and city rankings, records that change, living people, and film, TV, brand and league names. Levels are our estimate for grades 3 to 5: easy is review, medium is grade level, hard is a stretch. No bonus part repeats a question from this site's other trivia packs as they stood on 2026-09-19. Toss-ups share some answers with those packs, as any school set would, but each is a new question built from several clues. Licence: own work

Round 3: all 36 questions with answers

Math 6

  • Bonus 10, part A, on time: How many minutes are there in three and a half hours? Answer: 210. Source: Worked out by calculation and checked by a script
  • Bonus 10, part B, on time: How many hours are there in one week? Answer: 168. Source: Worked out by calculation and checked by a script
  • Bonus 6, part A, on polygons: A regular hexagon has sides 7 inches long. What is its perimeter? Answer: 42 inches. Source: Worked out by calculation and checked by a script
  • Bonus 6, part B, on polygons: How many sides do an octagon and a pentagon have in all? Answer: 13. Source: Worked out by calculation and checked by a script; background: Wikipedia: Octagon
  • Toss-up 10, math: Multiply 3, 4 and 5 together and you get this number. Each angle of an equilateral triangle measures this many degrees. Name this number, the count of seconds in one minute and of minutes in one hour. Answer: 60. Source: Worked out by calculation and checked by a script; background: Wikipedia: Equilateral triangle
  • Toss-up 6, math: When this shape is regular, each of its inside angles measures 120 degrees, and together they add up to 720 degrees. Bees build the wax cells of a honeycomb in this shape. Name this polygon, which has six sides. Answer: A hexagon. Source: Wikipedia: Hexagon

Science 6

  • Bonus 3, part A, on volcanoes: What is the bowl-shaped hollow at the top of a volcano called? Answer: A crater. Source: Wikipedia: Volcanic crater
  • Bonus 3, part B, on volcanoes: A volcano that has been quiet for a very long time but could still erupt again is described by which word? Answer: Dormant. Source: Wikipedia: Volcano
Show all 36 questions (28 more)

Science, continued

  • Bonus 7, part A, on animals without backbones: Crabs, lobsters and shrimp belong to which group of hard-shelled animals? Answer: Crustaceans. Source: Wikipedia: Crustacean
  • Bonus 7, part B, on animals without backbones: Snails, clams and squid belong to which large group of soft-bodied animals? Answer: Mollusks. Source: Wikipedia: Mollusca
  • Toss-up 3, science: Shield ones, such as Mauna Loa in Hawaii, have wide and gentle slopes. Hundreds of them circle the Pacific Ocean in a belt called the Ring of Fire. Name these openings in the crust of Earth where melted rock, called magma below ground and lava above it, breaks out. Answer: Volcanoes. Source: Wikipedia: Shield volcano
  • Toss-up 7, science: The platypus is one of the very few of these animals that lay eggs. They are warm-blooded, nearly all of them have hair or fur, and whales and bats belong to the group. Name this class of animals whose mothers feed their young with milk. Answer: Mammals. Source: Wikipedia: Mammal

Geography 6

  • Bonus 1, part A, on South America: Santiago is the capital of which long, narrow country on the Pacific coast of South America? Answer: Chile. Source: Wikipedia: Chile
  • Bonus 1, part B, on South America: The Galapagos Islands, famous for their giant tortoises, belong to which South American country? Answer: Ecuador. Source: Wikipedia: Galápagos Islands
  • Bonus 8, part A, on lines on the globe: Which line at zero degrees longitude is drawn through Greenwich, in London? Answer: The prime meridian. Source: Wikipedia: Prime meridian
  • Bonus 8, part B, on lines on the globe: Travelers change the calendar by one day when they cross which line in the middle of the Pacific Ocean? Answer: The International Date Line. Source: Wikipedia: International Date Line
  • Toss-up 1, geography: In 1960 this country moved its capital from Rio de Janeiro to a brand new planned city in the middle of the country. It is the only country in the Americas where Portuguese is the main language. Name this largest country in South America, home to most of the Amazon rainforest. Answer: Brazil. Source: Wikipedia: Brasília
  • Toss-up 8, geography: It crosses Ecuador, a country that is named after it, and a longer stretch of it lies in Indonesia than in any other country. It is halfway between the North Pole and the South Pole. Name this imaginary line at zero degrees latitude, which divides Earth into a Northern Hemisphere and a Southern Hemisphere. Answer: The equator. Source: Wikipedia: Equator

History and civics 6

  • Bonus 11, part A, on the Louisiana Purchase: From which country did the United States buy the Louisiana Territory in 1803? Answer: France. Source: Wikipedia: Louisiana Purchase
  • Bonus 11, part B, on the Louisiana Purchase: Which pair of explorers led the Corps of Discovery across the new territory and reached the Pacific Ocean in 1805? Answer: Lewis and Clark. Source: Wikipedia: Lewis and Clark Expedition
  • Bonus 5, part A, on explorers: Which Portuguese explorer led the first voyage to sail from Europe to India around the southern tip of Africa, landing there in 1498? Answer: Vasco da Gama. Source: Wikipedia: Vasco da Gama
  • Bonus 5, part B, on explorers: The continents of North and South America take their name from which Italian explorer? Answer: Amerigo Vespucci. Source: Wikipedia: Amerigo Vespucci
  • Toss-up 11, history: He founded the University of Virginia and designed his own hilltop home, which he called Monticello. As president he bought the Louisiana Territory and sent explorers to cross it. Name this third president, the main author of the Declaration of Independence. Answer: Thomas Jefferson. Source: Wikipedia: Thomas Jefferson
  • Toss-up 5, history: He was born in the Italian port of Genoa, and his first landing was on an island in the Bahamas. King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain paid for his voyage. Name this explorer who crossed the Atlantic in 1492 with three ships, the Nina, the Pinta and the Santa Maria. Answer: Christopher Columbus. Source: Wikipedia: Christopher Columbus

Language arts 6

  • Bonus 4, part A, on playing with words: Level, kayak and racecar all read the same backward as forward. What is a word like that called? Answer: A palindrome. Source: Wikipedia: Palindrome
  • Bonus 4, part B, on playing with words: The letters of the word listen can be rearranged to spell silent. What is a word made by rearranging all the letters of another word called? Answer: An anagram. Source: Wikipedia: Anagram
  • Bonus 9, part A, on American folk heroes: John Chapman was a real nurseryman who planted apple trees across Pennsylvania, Ohio and Indiana. By what nickname do we know him? Answer: Johnny Appleseed. Source: Wikipedia: Johnny Appleseed
  • Bonus 9, part B, on American folk heroes: Which steel-driving man of song and story raced a steam-powered drill with his hammer, and won? Answer: John Henry. Source: Wikipedia: John Henry (folklore)
  • Toss-up 4, language arts: The poet Robert Burns used one when he wrote that his love is like a red, red rose. Unlike a metaphor, it says outright that one thing resembles another. Name this figure of speech, a comparison that uses the word like or as. Answer: A simile. Source: Wikipedia: Simile
  • Toss-up 9, language arts: A logging company's advertising booklets made his stories famous across the country in the early 1900s, and giant statues of him and his pet stand in Bemidji, Minnesota. He is a lumberjack of enormous size and strength. Name this hero of American tall tales who travels with Babe the Blue Ox. Answer: Paul Bunyan. Source: Wikipedia: Paul Bunyan

The arts 6

  • Bonus 12, part A, on composers: Which composer from Salzburg, Austria, played for kings and queens as a small child and later wrote the opera The Magic Flute? Answer: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Source: Wikipedia: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
  • Bonus 12, part B, on composers: Antonio Vivaldi wrote a set of four violin concertos, one each for spring, summer, autumn and winter. What is the set called? Answer: The Four Seasons. Source: Wikipedia: The Four Seasons (Vivaldi)
  • Bonus 2, part A, on the brass family: Which brass instrument changes its notes with a long slide instead of valves? Answer: The trombone. Source: Wikipedia: Trombone
  • Bonus 2, part B, on the brass family: Which coiled brass instrument does a player hold with one hand tucked inside its bell? Answer: The French horn. Source: Wikipedia: French horn
  • Toss-up 12, the arts: His only opera is called Fidelio, and his Ninth Symphony ends with a choir singing the Ode to Joy. He went on writing music for years while he was losing his hearing. Name this German composer whose Fifth Symphony opens with four famous notes: short, short, short, long. Answer: Ludwig van Beethoven. Source: Wikipedia: Ludwig van Beethoven
  • Toss-up 2, the arts: Its player buzzes the lips into a cup-shaped mouthpiece and presses three valves to change the note. Jazz great Louis Armstrong played it, and its close cousin the cornet has a slightly mellower tone. Name this brass instrument, which looks like a bugle with valves added. Answer: The trumpet. Source: Wikipedia: Trumpet

How this list was compiled: Written for this site; nothing was copied from another question set. Every toss-up, bonus part, wrong choice and explanation is our own wording. The format follows how school quiz bowl is commonly played: a toss-up for individual players, then a bonus for the team that answered it, with toss-ups written from the hardest clue to the easiest. That format was checked on 2026-09-19 against Wikipedia's Quiz bowl article (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quiz_bowl) and against an Internet Archive copy, saved 2026-09-03, of one question company's published rules page (https://web.archive.org/web/20260903040600/https://www.naqt.com/rules/); the live rules page refused automated requests, so the archived copy is what was read. Each fact was checked on 2026-09-19 against the English Wikipedia article (https://en.wikipedia.org) named and linked beside the question: the article text was fetched on 2026-09-18 or 2026-09-19, and the sentence that states each clue was read before the question was kept. Extra claims in an explanation were checked the same way. Arithmetic answers were worked out by calculation and checked by a script. Word-part meanings (tri, tele) were checked on the English Wiktionary entries. Questions were changed or dropped when the article did not state the fact plainly. Left out on purpose: populations and city rankings, records that change, living people, and film, TV, brand and league names. Levels are our estimate for grades 3 to 5: easy is review, medium is grade level, hard is a stretch. No bonus part repeats a question from this site's other trivia packs as they stood on 2026-09-19. Toss-ups share some answers with those packs, as any school set would, but each is a new question built from several clues. Licence: own work

Round 4: all 36 questions with answers

Math 6

  • Bonus 1, part A, on circles: What is the name for exactly half of a circle? Answer: A semicircle. Source: Wikipedia: Semicircle
  • Bonus 1, part B, on circles: A circle has a diameter of 20 centimeters. Using 3.14 for pi, what is its circumference? Answer: 62.8 centimeters. Source: Worked out by calculation and checked by a script; background: Wikipedia: Circumference
  • Bonus 11, part A, on Roman numerals: What number does the Roman numeral XIV stand for? Answer: 14. Source: Worked out by calculation and checked by a script
  • Bonus 11, part B, on Roman numerals: Add the Roman numerals XXV and XV. What is the total, written as an ordinary number? Answer: 40. Source: Worked out by calculation and checked by a script; background: Wikipedia: Roman numerals
  • Toss-up 1, math: Its digits go on forever without ever settling into a repeating pattern, and the fraction 22 over 7 is a handy estimate for it. Many schools celebrate it on March 14. Name this number, about 3.14, which you get when you divide the circumference of any circle by its diameter. Answer: Pi. Source: Wikipedia: Pi
  • Toss-up 11, math: This way of writing numbers has no symbol for zero. It still appears on some clock faces and after the names of kings and queens. Name this system from the ancient world in which V stands for 5, X for 10 and M for 1,000. Answer: Roman numerals. Source: Wikipedia: Roman numerals

Science 6

  • Bonus 4, part A, on astronomy: In 1543, which Polish astronomer published a book saying that Earth and the other planets travel around the Sun? Answer: Nicolaus Copernicus. Source: Wikipedia: Nicolaus Copernicus
  • Bonus 4, part B, on astronomy: Halley's Comet last came close to the Sun in 1986. About when is it expected to come back? Answer: 2061. Source: Wikipedia: Halley's Comet
Show all 36 questions (28 more)

Science, continued

  • Bonus 9, part A, on water: A molecule of water is one atom of oxygen joined to two atoms of which other element? Answer: Hydrogen. Source: Wikipedia: Water
  • Bonus 9, part B, on water: At sea level, water boils at 100 degrees on the Celsius scale. What is that temperature on the Fahrenheit scale? Answer: 212 degrees. Source: Wikipedia: Fahrenheit
  • Toss-up 4, science: The fuzzy cloud of gas around the solid center of one of these objects is called the coma. The most famous one swings past Earth about every 76 years. Name these icy bodies that grow long glowing tails when they come close to the Sun. Answer: Comets. Source: Wikipedia: Comet
  • Toss-up 9, science: This element has atomic number 8. Three of its atoms joined together make ozone, a gas high in the sky that blocks harmful rays from the Sun. Name this gas, about one fifth of the air, which fires need to burn and animals need to breathe. Answer: Oxygen. Source: Wikipedia: Oxygen

Geography 6

  • Bonus 2, part A, on Asia: Mount Everest, the highest mountain on Earth, stands on the border between China and which small country? Answer: Nepal. Source: Wikipedia: Mount Everest
  • Bonus 2, part B, on Asia: Which river, the longest in Asia, flows across China and reaches the sea near the city of Shanghai? Answer: The Yangtze. Source: Wikipedia: Yangtze
  • Bonus 7, part A, on the far north: What is the name for a large piece of freshwater ice that has broken off a glacier or an ice shelf and floats freely in open water? Answer: An iceberg. Source: Wikipedia: Iceberg
  • Bonus 7, part B, on the far north: The Klondike gold rush of the late 1890s drew tens of thousands of prospectors to which territory of Canada, just east of Alaska? Answer: Yukon. Source: Wikipedia: Klondike Gold Rush
  • Toss-up 2, geography: This country is a chain of four large islands and thousands of small ones, and the largest island is called Honshu. Its highest mountain is a snow-capped volcano named Mount Fuji. Name this island country in East Asia whose capital is Tokyo. Answer: Japan. Source: Wikipedia: Japan
  • Toss-up 7, geography: A long chain of its islands, the Aleutians, reaches so far west that it crosses into the Eastern Hemisphere. The United States bought this land from Russia in 1867. Name this largest state, home to Denali and to the capital city of Juneau. Answer: Alaska. Source: Wikipedia: Alaska

History and civics 6

  • Bonus 12, part A, on famous flights: The Wright brothers worked in a bicycle shop in Dayton, Ohio. Near which seaside town did they make the first controlled, powered airplane flights on December 17, 1903? Answer: Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. Source: Wikipedia: Wright brothers
  • Bonus 12, part B, on famous flights: In 1932, who became the first woman to fly alone and nonstop across the Atlantic Ocean? Answer: Amelia Earhart. Source: Wikipedia: Amelia Earhart
  • Bonus 6, part A, on the Statue of Liberty: The tablet in the statue's left hand carries a date written in Roman numerals: July 4 of which year? Answer: 1776. Source: Wikipedia: Statue of Liberty
  • Bonus 6, part B, on the Statue of Liberty: From 1892 to 1954, millions of newcomers to the United States were checked at an immigration station on which island, close to the statue? Answer: Ellis Island. Source: Wikipedia: Ellis Island
  • Toss-up 12, history: Before he was an astronaut he was a test pilot who flew the X-15 rocket plane. He was born in Wapakoneta, Ohio, and he commanded Apollo 11. Name this man who, in July 1969, became the first person to walk on the Moon. Answer: Neil Armstrong. Source: Wikipedia: Neil Armstrong
  • Toss-up 6, history: The engineer Gustave Eiffel built the iron frame hidden inside it, and the sculptor Frederic Auguste Bartholdi designed the outside. It was a gift from the people of France, and it was dedicated in 1886. Name this copper figure in New York Harbor who holds a torch high above her head. Answer: The Statue of Liberty. Source: Wikipedia: Statue of Liberty

Language arts 6

  • Bonus 3, part A, on fairy tales: Which Danish author wrote The Ugly Duckling, The Little Mermaid and The Emperor's New Clothes? Answer: Hans Christian Andersen. Source: Wikipedia: Hans Christian Andersen
  • Bonus 3, part B, on fairy tales: In a tale the Grimms collected, which little man spins straw into gold and loses his bargain when the queen guesses his name? Answer: Rumpelstiltskin. Source: Wikipedia: Rumpelstiltskin
  • Bonus 8, part A, on sentences: Sit down. Please pass the salt. What kind of sentence gives a command or makes a request? Answer: An imperative sentence. Source: Wikipedia: Imperative mood
  • Bonus 8, part B, on sentences: In the sentence 'The tired dog slept on the porch,' the words 'the tired dog' tell who the sentence is about. What is that part of a sentence called? Answer: The subject. Source: Wikipedia: Subject (grammar)
  • Toss-up 3, language arts: These two scholars, named Jacob and Wilhelm, also began writing a huge dictionary of the German language. In 1812 they published a collection of old folk tales that they had gathered. Name these brothers whose book gave the world Hansel and Gretel, Rapunzel and Snow White. Answer: The Brothers Grimm. Source: Wikipedia: Brothers Grimm
  • Toss-up 8, language arts: This mark shares its name with a figure of speech in which a speaker talks to someone who is not there. It shows that a noun owns something, as in the phrase the dog's bone. Name this punctuation mark that also stands in for the missing letters in contractions such as can't and we'll. Answer: The apostrophe. Source: Wikipedia: Apostrophe

The arts 6

  • Bonus 10, part A, on styles of painting: Which style of painting got its name from a picture by Claude Monet called Impression, Sunrise? Answer: Impressionism. Source: Wikipedia: Impressionism
  • Bonus 10, part B, on styles of painting: Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque started which style, in which objects are broken up and shown from several sides at once? Answer: Cubism. Source: Wikipedia: Cubism
  • Bonus 5, part A, on woodwinds: Clarinet and saxophone players fasten a thin strip of cane to the mouthpiece, and it vibrates to make the sound. What is the strip called? Answer: A reed. Source: Wikipedia: Reed (mouthpiece)
  • Bonus 5, part B, on woodwinds: Before a concert begins, which double-reed woodwind plays the note that the rest of the orchestra tunes to? Answer: The oboe. Source: Wikipedia: Oboe
  • Toss-up 10, the arts: He painted several canvases of sunflowers in a vase to decorate a room for a friend. He made about 2,100 artworks in just over ten years, yet he found no success in his lifetime. Name this Dutch artist who painted swirling skies in The Starry Night. Answer: Vincent van Gogh. Source: Wikipedia: Vincent van Gogh
  • Toss-up 5, the arts: Its tiny cousin, the piccolo, plays an octave higher. It counts as a woodwind even though it is usually made of metal and has no reed at all. Name this instrument that a player holds out sideways and sounds by blowing across a hole. Answer: The flute. Source: Wikipedia: Woodwind instrument

How this list was compiled: Written for this site; nothing was copied from another question set. Every toss-up, bonus part, wrong choice and explanation is our own wording. The format follows how school quiz bowl is commonly played: a toss-up for individual players, then a bonus for the team that answered it, with toss-ups written from the hardest clue to the easiest. That format was checked on 2026-09-19 against Wikipedia's Quiz bowl article (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quiz_bowl) and against an Internet Archive copy, saved 2026-09-03, of one question company's published rules page (https://web.archive.org/web/20260903040600/https://www.naqt.com/rules/); the live rules page refused automated requests, so the archived copy is what was read. Each fact was checked on 2026-09-19 against the English Wikipedia article (https://en.wikipedia.org) named and linked beside the question: the article text was fetched on 2026-09-18 or 2026-09-19, and the sentence that states each clue was read before the question was kept. Extra claims in an explanation were checked the same way. Arithmetic answers were worked out by calculation and checked by a script. Word-part meanings (tri, tele) were checked on the English Wiktionary entries. Questions were changed or dropped when the article did not state the fact plainly. Left out on purpose: populations and city rankings, records that change, living people, and film, TV, brand and league names. Levels are our estimate for grades 3 to 5: easy is review, medium is grade level, hard is a stretch. No bonus part repeats a question from this site's other trivia packs as they stood on 2026-09-19. Toss-ups share some answers with those packs, as any school set would, but each is a new question built from several clues. Licence: own work

Round 5: all 36 questions with answers

Math 6

  • Bonus 4, part A, on mean and range: What is the mean of these five numbers: 3, 7, 7, 9 and 14? Answer: 8. Source: Worked out by calculation and checked by a script
  • Bonus 4, part B, on mean and range: What is the range of these five numbers: 3, 7, 7, 9 and 14? Answer: 11. Source: Worked out by calculation and checked by a script; background: Wikipedia: Range (statistics)
  • Bonus 9, part A, on metric units: A beetle is 4.5 centimeters long. How long is that in millimeters? Answer: 45. Source: Worked out by calculation and checked by a script; background: Wikipedia: Millimetre
  • Bonus 9, part B, on metric units: How many grams are there in one and a half kilograms? Answer: 1,500. Source: Worked out by calculation and checked by a script; background: Wikipedia: Gram
  • Toss-up 4, math: One very large or very small number in a list can pull this value far away from the middle, which is why people sometimes use the median instead. To find it, add up all the numbers, then divide by how many numbers there are. Name this value, which many people simply call the average. Answer: The mean. Source: Wikipedia: Arithmetic mean
  • Toss-up 9, math: A millennium lasts this many years. It is equal to 10 cubed, and the metric prefix kilo stands for it. Name this number, the count of meters in one kilometer and of grams in one kilogram. Answer: 1,000. Source: Worked out by calculation and checked by a script; background: Wikipedia: Kilo-

Science 6

  • Bonus 11, part A, on hurricanes: The Atlantic hurricane season officially begins on the first day of which month? Answer: June. Source: Wikipedia: Atlantic hurricane season
  • Bonus 11, part B, on hurricanes: What is the name for the rise of seawater that the winds of a hurricane push onto the coast? Answer: A storm surge. Source: Wikipedia: Storm surge
Show all 36 questions (28 more)

Science, continued

  • Bonus 6, part A, on dinosaurs: Which plant-eating dinosaur had large, kite-shaped plates standing upright along its back and sharp spikes on its tail? Answer: Stegosaurus. Source: Wikipedia: Stegosaurus
  • Bonus 6, part B, on dinosaurs: Which giant long-necked dinosaur has a name that means arm lizard, because its front legs were longer than its back legs? Answer: Brachiosaurus. Source: Wikipedia: Brachiosaurus
  • Toss-up 11, science: Forecasters rank them from Category 1 to Category 5 on the Saffir-Simpson scale. At the center of each one is a calm and often clear patch called the eye. Name these huge spinning storms that grow over warm ocean water and are called typhoons in the western Pacific. Answer: Hurricanes. Source: Wikipedia: Saffir–Simpson scale
  • Toss-up 6, science: Barnum Brown found the first partial skeleton of this animal in Wyoming in 1900, and its bite is thought to have been the strongest of any land animal. It lived in western North America at the very end of the Cretaceous period, and its short arms had just two clawed fingers. Name this huge meat-eating dinosaur whose name means tyrant lizard. Answer: Tyrannosaurus. Source: Wikipedia: Tyrannosaurus

Geography 6

  • Bonus 12, part A, on North America: Greenland is the largest island in the world. Which European kingdom is it a territory of? Answer: Denmark. Source: Wikipedia: Greenland
  • Bonus 12, part B, on North America: Chichen Itza and other stone cities of the ancient Maya stand on which peninsula in southeastern Mexico? Answer: The Yucatan Peninsula. Source: Wikipedia: Chichen Itza
  • Bonus 5, part A, on Europe: England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland together make up which country? Answer: The United Kingdom. Source: Wikipedia: United Kingdom
  • Bonus 5, part B, on Europe: Spain and Portugal share which peninsula at the southwestern corner of Europe? Answer: The Iberian Peninsula. Source: Wikipedia: Iberian Peninsula
  • Toss-up 12, geography: Its largest territory, Nunavut, was separated from the Northwest Territories in 1999. It has ten provinces and three territories, and its flag shows a red maple leaf. Name this second-largest country in the world, whose capital is Ottawa. Answer: Canada. Source: Wikipedia: Canada
  • Toss-up 5, geography: Two tiny independent countries, San Marino and Vatican City, lie completely inside it. The Apennine Mountains run down its length, and Sicily is its largest island. Name this boot-shaped country in southern Europe whose capital is Rome. Answer: Italy. Source: Wikipedia: Italy

History and civics 6

  • Bonus 2, part A, on ancient Greece: Which thinker of ancient Athens taught by asking question after question, and had Plato as his student? Answer: Socrates. Source: Wikipedia: Socrates
  • Bonus 2, part B, on ancient Greece: Which king of Macedon was taught by Aristotle as a boy and built an empire from Greece to India before he turned 33? Answer: Alexander the Great. Source: Wikipedia: Alexander the Great
  • Bonus 7, part A, on the thirteen colonies: Which colony was founded by the Quaker William Penn, and carries his family name to this day? Answer: Pennsylvania. Source: Wikipedia: William Penn
  • Bonus 7, part B, on the thirteen colonies: The last of the thirteen colonies to be set up received its charter in 1732 and was named for King George II. Which colony was it? Answer: Georgia. Source: Wikipedia: Province of Georgia
  • Toss-up 2, history: In myth, a goddess won this city by giving it an olive tree, beating the sea god Poseidon and his gift. A temple to her, the Parthenon, still stands on its rocky hilltop, the Acropolis. Name this ancient home of democracy, today the capital of Greece. Answer: Athens. Source: Wikipedia: Athens
  • Toss-up 7, history: Settlers sent by the Virginia Company built it on a river in 1607, and only 60 of 214 settlers lived through the winter they called the Starving Time. Captain John Smith was one of its early leaders. Name this first permanent English settlement in North America. Answer: Jamestown. Source: Wikipedia: Jamestown

Language arts 6

  • Bonus 1, part A, on heroes of legend: Which outlaw of English legend lived in Sherwood Forest with his Merry Men and took from the rich to give to the poor? Answer: Robin Hood. Source: Wikipedia: Robin Hood
  • Bonus 1, part B, on heroes of legend: Which folk hero of Switzerland was forced to shoot an apple off his own son's head with a crossbow? Answer: William Tell. Source: Wikipedia: William Tell
  • Bonus 10, part A, on poetry: Which kind of funny poem uses the rhyme pattern AABBA and was made popular by Edward Lear in the 1800s? Answer: A limerick. Source: Wikipedia: Limerick (poetry)
  • Bonus 10, part B, on poetry: A group of lines set together in a poem, a little like a paragraph in a story, is called what? Answer: A stanza. Source: Wikipedia: Stanza
  • Toss-up 1, language arts: The wizard Merlin advised him, and Queen Guinevere was his wife. His court met at the castle of Camelot. Name this legendary king of Britain who carried the sword Excalibur and sat his knights at a Round Table. Answer: King Arthur. Source: Wikipedia: King Arthur
  • Toss-up 10, language arts: One of the best-known examples is called 'old pond', and its writer, Basho, is remembered as the greatest master of the form. These poems include a word that points to a season of the year. Name this very short form of poetry from Japan, written in three parts of 5, 7 and 5 syllables. Answer: A haiku. Source: Wikipedia: Haiku

The arts 6

  • Bonus 3, part A, on percussion: Which percussion instrument has rows of wooden bars that a player strikes with mallets to play a tune? Answer: The xylophone. Source: Wikipedia: Xylophone
  • Bonus 3, part B, on percussion: Italian words such as allegro, for fast, and adagio, for slow, tell a musician about which feature of a piece of music? Answer: Its tempo. Source: Wikipedia: Tempo
  • Bonus 8, part A, on kinds of painting: What do we call a painting, drawing or photograph that shows a particular person, usually the face? Answer: A portrait. Source: Wikipedia: Portrait
  • Bonus 8, part B, on kinds of painting: A painting of objects that do not move, such as a bowl of fruit, a vase of flowers or a loaf of bread, is called what? Answer: A still life. Source: Wikipedia: Still life
  • Toss-up 3, the arts: The big copper kettledrums called timpani belong to this family, and so do the glockenspiel and the triangle. Its instruments sound when they are struck or scraped. Name this section of the orchestra, the one that holds the drums and cymbals. Answer: Percussion. Source: Wikipedia: Percussion instrument
  • Toss-up 8, the arts: Auguste Rodin made a famous bronze example of this kind of art, a seated man called The Thinker. Artists make these works by carving, modeling or casting. Name this art of making forms in three dimensions, often from stone, metal, clay or wood. Answer: Sculpture. Source: Wikipedia: Sculpture

How this list was compiled: Written for this site; nothing was copied from another question set. Every toss-up, bonus part, wrong choice and explanation is our own wording. The format follows how school quiz bowl is commonly played: a toss-up for individual players, then a bonus for the team that answered it, with toss-ups written from the hardest clue to the easiest. That format was checked on 2026-09-19 against Wikipedia's Quiz bowl article (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quiz_bowl) and against an Internet Archive copy, saved 2026-09-03, of one question company's published rules page (https://web.archive.org/web/20260903040600/https://www.naqt.com/rules/); the live rules page refused automated requests, so the archived copy is what was read. Each fact was checked on 2026-09-19 against the English Wikipedia article (https://en.wikipedia.org) named and linked beside the question: the article text was fetched on 2026-09-18 or 2026-09-19, and the sentence that states each clue was read before the question was kept. Extra claims in an explanation were checked the same way. Arithmetic answers were worked out by calculation and checked by a script. Word-part meanings (tri, tele) were checked on the English Wiktionary entries. Questions were changed or dropped when the article did not state the fact plainly. Left out on purpose: populations and city rankings, records that change, living people, and film, TV, brand and league names. Levels are our estimate for grades 3 to 5: easy is review, medium is grade level, hard is a stretch. No bonus part repeats a question from this site's other trivia packs as they stood on 2026-09-19. Toss-ups share some answers with those packs, as any school set would, but each is a new question built from several clues. Licence: own work

Round 6: all 36 questions with answers

Math 6

  • Bonus 12, part A, on fractions of 24: What is three fourths of 24? Answer: 18. Source: Worked out by calculation and checked by a script
  • Bonus 12, part B, on fractions of 24: Add two thirds of 24 to one half of 24. What is the total? Answer: 28. Source: Worked out by calculation and checked by a script
  • Bonus 5, part A, on the order of operations: Follow the order of operations. What is 3 + 4 x 5? Answer: 23. Source: Worked out by calculation and checked by a script; background: Wikipedia: Order of operations
  • Bonus 5, part B, on the order of operations: Follow the order of operations. What is 20 - 12 ÷ 4? Answer: 17. Source: Worked out by calculation and checked by a script
  • Toss-up 12, math: It is the value of 4 factorial, which means 4 times 3 times 2 times 1. It has exactly eight factors, and it equals two dozen. Name this number, the count of hours in one day. Answer: 24. Source: Worked out by calculation and checked by a script
  • Toss-up 5, math: This number is neither positive nor negative. Add it to any number and nothing changes, but multiply any number by it and the answer is this number itself. Name this number, which you can never divide by. Answer: Zero. Source: Wikipedia: 0

Science 6

  • Bonus 10, part A, on tools of science: Which simple weather instrument collects rain and shows how much has fallen? Answer: A rain gauge. Source: Wikipedia: Rain gauge
  • Bonus 10, part B, on tools of science: Which tube fitted with mirrors or prisms lets the crew of a submarine look above the water while staying below it? Answer: A periscope. Source: Wikipedia: Periscope
Show all 36 questions (28 more)

Science, continued

  • Bonus 2, part A, on insects: A dragonfly's large eyes are made of thousands of tiny lenses packed together. What is this kind of eye called? Answer: A compound eye. Source: Wikipedia: Compound eye
  • Bonus 2, part B, on insects: Ladybugs and fireflies are not really bugs or flies. They belong to which order of insects, the largest of all, whose front wings are hard cases? Answer: Beetles. Source: Wikipedia: Beetle
  • Toss-up 10, science: In the 1670s a Dutch draper named Antonie van Leeuwenhoek began using ones he built himself, and he became the first person to record seeing bacteria. A few years earlier Robert Hooke used one to study a plant, and its walled compartments reminded him of the small rooms of a monastery, so he named them cells. Name this instrument that makes very small things look bigger. Answer: The microscope. Source: Wikipedia: Antonie van Leeuwenhoek
  • Toss-up 2, science: The body of one of these animals has three parts, called the head, the thorax and the abdomen. More than half of all the animal species that scientists have named belong to this group. Name these six-legged animals, which include ants, bees and butterflies. Answer: Insects. Source: Wikipedia: Insect

Geography 6

  • Bonus 4, part A, on Hawaii: Honolulu, the capital of Hawaii, stands on which island? Answer: Oahu. Source: Wikipedia: Honolulu
  • Bonus 4, part B, on Hawaii: What do geographers call a chain or cluster of islands, such as the Hawaiian Islands? Answer: An archipelago. Source: Wikipedia: Archipelago
  • Bonus 9, part A, on rivers: The Amazon River flows east across Brazil and empties into which ocean? Answer: The Atlantic Ocean. Source: Wikipedia: Amazon River
  • Bonus 9, part B, on rivers: What is the word for a smaller river or stream that flows into a bigger river instead of into the sea? Answer: A tributary. Source: Wikipedia: Tributary
  • Toss-up 4, geography: It is the only one of the United States that is not on the North American mainland, and the only one made up entirely of islands. Measured from its base under the ocean, its mountain Mauna Kea rises farther than Mount Everest stands above sea level. Name this state, the most recent to join the Union, whose capital is Honolulu. Answer: Hawaii. Source: Wikipedia: Hawaii
  • Toss-up 9, geography: Its most distant sources are in the mountains of Peru, and a big tributary whose name means Black River joins it at the Brazilian city of Manaus. It carries more water than any other river on Earth. Name this South American river that shares its name with the largest tropical rainforest in the world. Answer: The Amazon. Source: Wikipedia: Amazon River

History and civics 6

  • Bonus 3, part A, on ancient China: Paper, printing and the compass are three of the Four Great Inventions of ancient China. What explosive powder is the fourth? Answer: Gunpowder. Source: Wikipedia: Four Great Inventions
  • Bonus 3, part B, on ancient China: In 1974, farmers digging a well near the city of Xi'an found thousands of life-size clay soldiers guarding the tomb of the first emperor. What is this buried army called? Answer: The Terracotta Army. Source: Wikipedia: Terracotta Army
  • Bonus 8, part A, on Congress: Congress has two houses. One is the Senate. What is the other? Answer: The House of Representatives. Source: Wikipedia: United States Congress
  • Bonus 8, part B, on Congress: How many voting members sit in the House of Representatives? Answer: 435. Source: Wikipedia: United States House of Representatives
  • Toss-up 3, history: Its best-known sections were built by the Ming dynasty. Much earlier, during the Qin dynasty, older stretches of it were joined together. Name this chain of stone, brick and earth defenses that runs for thousands of miles across northern China. Answer: The Great Wall of China. Source: Wikipedia: Great Wall of China
  • Toss-up 8, history: Article Three of the Constitution is the part that deals with it. Its members are picked by the president, must be approved by the Senate, and may then keep their seats for life. Name this highest court in the United States, where nine justices are led by a chief justice. Answer: The Supreme Court. Source: Wikipedia: Supreme Court of the United States

Language arts 6

  • Bonus 11, part A, on gods in the calendar: Thursday is named after which hammer-carrying Norse god of thunder? Answer: Thor. Source: Wikipedia: Thor
  • Bonus 11, part B, on gods in the calendar: The month of March is named after which Roman god of war? Answer: Mars. Source: Wikipedia: March
  • Bonus 6, part A, on word roots: The prefix tri appears in tricycle, triangle and triplets. What number does it stand for? Answer: Three. Source: Wiktionary: tri-
  • Bonus 6, part B, on word roots: The Greek word part tele appears in telephone, telescope and television. What does it mean? Answer: Far away. Source: Wiktionary: tele-
  • Toss-up 11, language arts: The Roman poet Virgil tells its story in the Aeneid, where a priest named Laocoon begs his people not to trust it. It was the clever idea of Odysseus, and soldiers hid inside it. Name this giant wooden animal that the Greeks used to get inside the walls of Troy. Answer: The Trojan Horse. Source: Wikipedia: Trojan Horse
  • Toss-up 6, language arts: It is one kind of affix, and it changes the meaning of the word it joins. Examples are the un in unhappy and the re in rewrite. Name this word part that is fastened to the front of a root word. Answer: A prefix. Source: Wikipedia: Prefix

The arts 6

  • Bonus 1, part A, on voices in a choir: In a choir, what is the name of the highest singing voice? Answer: Soprano. Source: Wikipedia: Soprano
  • Bonus 1, part B, on voices in a choir: In a choir, what is the name of the lowest singing voice? Answer: Bass. Source: Wikipedia: Bass (voice type)
  • Bonus 7, part A, on reading music: Written music sits on a staff. How many lines does a staff usually have? Answer: Five. Source: Wikipedia: Staff (music)
  • Bonus 7, part B, on reading music: In four-four time a quarter note gets one beat. How many beats does a whole note last? Answer: Four. Source: Worked out by calculation and checked by a script; background: Wikipedia: Whole note
  • Toss-up 1, the arts: This person studies a full score, a book that shows every instrument's part at once. During a concert this person makes no sound at all, but sets the speed and shows the players when to come in. Name this leader who stands in front of an orchestra, often waving a thin stick called a baton. Answer: The conductor. Source: Wikipedia: Conducting
  • Toss-up 7, the arts: It began at the courts of Renaissance Italy and then grew up in France, which is why its steps have French names such as plie and pirouette. Women who perform it may dance on the tips of their toes in pointe shoes. Name this graceful kind of dance seen in The Nutcracker and Swan Lake. Answer: Ballet. Source: Wikipedia: Ballet

How this list was compiled: Written for this site; nothing was copied from another question set. Every toss-up, bonus part, wrong choice and explanation is our own wording. The format follows how school quiz bowl is commonly played: a toss-up for individual players, then a bonus for the team that answered it, with toss-ups written from the hardest clue to the easiest. That format was checked on 2026-09-19 against Wikipedia's Quiz bowl article (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quiz_bowl) and against an Internet Archive copy, saved 2026-09-03, of one question company's published rules page (https://web.archive.org/web/20260903040600/https://www.naqt.com/rules/); the live rules page refused automated requests, so the archived copy is what was read. Each fact was checked on 2026-09-19 against the English Wikipedia article (https://en.wikipedia.org) named and linked beside the question: the article text was fetched on 2026-09-18 or 2026-09-19, and the sentence that states each clue was read before the question was kept. Extra claims in an explanation were checked the same way. Arithmetic answers were worked out by calculation and checked by a script. Word-part meanings (tri, tele) were checked on the English Wiktionary entries. Questions were changed or dropped when the article did not state the fact plainly. Left out on purpose: populations and city rankings, records that change, living people, and film, TV, brand and league names. Levels are our estimate for grades 3 to 5: easy is review, medium is grade level, hard is a stretch. No bonus part repeats a question from this site's other trivia packs as they stood on 2026-09-19. Toss-ups share some answers with those packs, as any school set would, but each is a new question built from several clues. Licence: own work