If a whale gets lost, can it find its way home? The kids’ quiz

1. Alma, 4, asks: if a whale gets lost, can the whale find its way home?

   1. No

   2. Yes, but only if they have a compass with them

   3. Only if it’s not too dark

   4. They usually can – they’re great navigators!

2. Felix, 8, asks: how many kilometres from the sun to Neptune?

   1. 5km – it’s really close

   2. 400,000km – slightly bigger than the distance from the Earth to the moon

   3. 4.5bn km

   4. No one knows

3. Gretel, 8, asks: why does SpongeBob look like a washing-up sponge when he is a sea sponge?

   1. A sea sponge looked far too scary

   2. A realistic sea sponge was too hard to draw

   3. Because it fits with SpongeBob’s character

   4. No one knows what sea sponges look like

4. Mara, 7, asks: why do people’s arms swing when they walk?

   1. Energy efficiency and balance

   2. We’re naturally rhythmic!

   3. We evolved to be ready to run at any moment

   4. It’s because we’ve evolved from fish

5. Misaki, 6, asks: why are sharks good for the ocean when they eat so many fish?

   1. They maintain balance within the ecosystem

   2. They help protect plants that remove carbon from the atmosphere

   3. They help fertilise plants with nutrients

   4. All of the above

Solutions

1:D - Whales are amazing navigators! Humpback whales, for example, swim from Antarctica to Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, thousands of kilometres away. It’s thought they mainly use the Earth’s magnetic field to find their way, as well as sensing changes in sea currents and temperatures and the features of the sea floor., 2:C - Neptune orbits the sun in an oval shape, meaning its distance from the sun varies, but the average distance is roughly 4.5bn kilometres., 3:C - The creator of SpongeBob SquarePants, Stephen Hillenburg, thought making his character square and more like a dish sponge better represented SpongeBob’s “nerdiness”. , 4:A - Swinging our arms when we walk helps us regain our balance if we trip. It also helps to propel our bodies forward, saving more energy than it uses., 5:D - Sharks do eat fish, but it helps balance the ecosystem. They keep down numbers of fish that might otherwise eat too many carbon-removing plants. Some species also provide nutrients through their waste.

Scores

1. 5 and above.

2. 4 and above.

3. 3 and above.

4. 2 and above.

5. 0 and above.

6. 1 and above.