Science GK Questions for Kids (with Answers)
Science is all around us, from the steam rising off a cup of tea to the rainbow after a shower. These 30 science GK questions cover everyday science: plants, the water cycle, magnets, light, sound and the states of matter.
30 questions · answers included · free to print and share
Easy science GK questions (ages 5–7)
1.What do plants need to make their own food?
Show answerHide answer
Answer: Sunlight, water and air
Plants make food in their green leaves, and this process is called photosynthesis.
2.What are the three states of matter we see every day?
Show answerHide answer
Answer: Solid, liquid and gas
Ice, water and steam are all the same substance, water, in three different states.
3.What kind of things does a magnet pull towards it?
Show answerHide answer
Answer: Things made of iron and some other metals
Magnets attract iron, nickel and cobalt, but not wood, plastic or paper.
4.At what temperature does water boil at sea level?
- 0°C
- 50°C
- 100°C
- 200°C
Show answerHide answer
Answer: 100°C
High up in the mountains, water boils at a lower temperature than 100°C.
5.What does water turn into when it freezes?
Show answerHide answer
Answer: Ice
Ice floats because a block of ice is lighter than a block of water of the same size.
6.Which gas do we need to breathe in to stay alive?
- Oxygen
- Carbon dioxide
- Nitrogen
Show answerHide answer
Answer: Oxygen
Green plants give out oxygen when they make their food in sunlight.
7.Which part of a plant takes in water from the soil?
Show answerHide answer
Answer: The roots
Roots also hold the plant firmly in the ground.
8.What do we call the colourful arc we sometimes see in the sky after rain?
Show answerHide answer
Answer: A rainbow
A rainbow has seven colours: violet, indigo, blue, green, yellow, orange and red.
9.What is the force that pulls things down to the ground?
Show answerHide answer
Answer: Gravity
Gravity is also what keeps the Moon going around the Earth.
10.Which travels faster, light or sound?
- Light
- Sound
Show answerHide answer
Answer: Light
This is why we see lightning before we hear the thunder.
Medium science GK questions (ages 8–10)
11.What is the green substance in leaves that traps sunlight called?
- Chlorophyll
- Starch
- Glucose
Show answerHide answer
Answer: Chlorophyll
Chlorophyll is what gives leaves their green colour.
12.What are the three main stages of the water cycle?
Show answerHide answer
Answer: Evaporation, condensation and precipitation
The Sun’s heat drives the water cycle by evaporating water from seas, rivers and lakes.
13.What is it called when water vapour cools and turns into tiny drops of water?
- Evaporation
- Condensation
- Melting
- Freezing
Show answerHide answer
Answer: Condensation
You can see condensation when water drops form on the outside of a glass of cold water.
14.What are the two ends of a magnet called?
Show answerHide answer
Answer: North pole and south pole
Like poles push each other away, and unlike poles pull each other together.
15.Can sound travel through empty space?
Show answerHide answer
Answer: No
Sound needs something like air, water or a solid to travel through, so space is silent.
16.What do we call materials that let electricity pass through them easily?
Show answerHide answer
Answer: Conductors
Copper is a good conductor, which is why it is used inside electric wires.
17.What is the bending of light called when it passes from air into water?
Show answerHide answer
Answer: Refraction
Refraction makes a straw standing in a glass of water look bent.
18.Which gas do plants take in from the air to make their food?
- Oxygen
- Carbon dioxide
- Nitrogen
- Hydrogen
Show answerHide answer
Answer: Carbon dioxide
Animals breathe out carbon dioxide and plants use it, so they help each other.
19.What is it called when plants give out water vapour through their leaves?
Show answerHide answer
Answer: Transpiration
Transpiration helps pull water up from the roots to the leaves, a bit like sucking through a straw.
20.Which gas makes up most of the air around us?
- Oxygen
- Nitrogen
- Carbon dioxide
Show answerHide answer
Answer: Nitrogen
Air is about 78% nitrogen and about 21% oxygen.
21.Which instrument do we use to measure temperature?
Show answerHide answer
Answer: Thermometer
A healthy person’s body temperature is usually about 37°C.
22.How is a shadow formed?
Show answerHide answer
Answer: When an object blocks light
Outdoor shadows are shortest around noon, when the Sun is highest in the sky.
Hard science GK questions (ages 11–13)
23.What is it called when a solid, like camphor, turns straight into a gas without melting?
- Melting
- Evaporation
- Sublimation
- Condensation
Show answerHide answer
Answer: Sublimation
Camphor and dry ice both sublime, which is why a camphor tablet slowly disappears.
24.About how fast does light travel?
Show answerHide answer
Answer: About 3 lakh km per second
Nothing in the universe is known to travel faster than light.
25.Does sound travel fastest through air, water or steel?
- Air
- Water
- Steel
Show answerHide answer
Answer: Steel
Sound travels many times faster through steel than through air.
26.Which scientist explained gravity after, as the story goes, watching an apple fall?
Show answerHide answer
Answer: Isaac Newton
Newton also worked out three laws of motion that explain how things move.
27.Which Indian scientist won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1930 for his work on light?
- C. V. Raman
- Homi J. Bhabha
- Jagadish Chandra Bose
- A. P. J. Abdul Kalam
Show answerHide answer
Answer: C. V. Raman
India celebrates National Science Day on 28 February to mark his discovery, the Raman effect.
28.Which Indian scientist showed that plants respond to their surroundings and invented the crescograph?
Show answerHide answer
Answer: Jagadish Chandra Bose
The crescograph could measure even the tiniest amount of plant growth.
29.Why does the sky look blue on a clear day?
Show answerHide answer
Answer: Air scatters blue sunlight the most
At sunrise and sunset, sunlight passes through more air, so we see more red and orange.
30.What do we call a magnet that can be switched on and off with electricity?
Show answerHide answer
Answer: Electromagnet
Electromagnets are used in cranes that lift scrap iron and in electric bells.
Keep learning science
The questions go from easy (ages 5–7) to medium (ages 8–10) to hard (ages 11–13), and every answer has a short fun fact. Many of them can be tried out at home with things you already have in the kitchen.
How to use these questions at home
- Try a mini experiment after a question: watch ice melt, test what a fridge magnet sticks to, or bend a straw in a glass of water.
- Ask “why?” after each answer and let your child guess before reading the fun fact.
- Keep a small science notebook where your child writes one new fact a day in their own words.