When were the first brick houses made and why do bees buzz? Try our kids’ quiz

1. Ben, 9, asks: when did humans first start making brick houses?

   1. The 17th century

   2. 7000BC

   3. 1970s

   4. AD700

2. Elodie, 8, asks: how far can elephants walk in a day?

   1. Up to 2 kilometres – they are very big so they get tired quickly

   2. Up to 20 kilometres

   3. Up to 200 kilometres

   4. Up to 2,000 kilometres – they drink a lot of water and it means they can walk a very long way

3. Lottie, 9, asks: why do bees buzz?

   1. They buzz to warn humans that they mustn’t come too close

   2. They buzz to communicate with other bees

   3. Bees are just humming to themselves

   4. The rapid beating of their wings makes the sound

4. Caden, 6, asks: what is the hardest naturally occurring material?

   1. Titanium

   2. Diamond

   3. Gold

   4. Lapis lazuli

5. Mireia, 8, asks: when was the first pen invented?

   1. About 3000BC by the ancient Egyptians

   2. AD300 by the Romans

   3. About 1300 by Pope Boniface VIII

   4. 1932 by George V

Solutions

1:B - Humans have been building with bricks since about 7000BC. Very early bricks were found around the ancient city of Jericho, in the West Bank. They were loaves of mud, baked dry in the sun, then stacked and bound together using more mud., 2:C - According to the conservation charity Elephants for Africa, African elephants have been known to walk up to 200 kilometres in one day. That is like walking farther than the distance from London to Bristol in the UK (185km)., 3:D - The buzzing sound bees make is mostly produced by the rapid beating of their wings, which can beat up to 230 times a second! Some bees buzz when they visit a flower, to release its pollen., 4:B - Diamond is the Earth’s hardest naturally occurring material, scoring 70-150 gigapascals on the Vickers hardness test – this test measures the force needed to make an indent with a specially designed tool on the material., 5:A - The first recorded pens were used in ancient Egypt, dating from about 3000BC. They were made out of reed, for writing on papyrus.

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.

Molly Oldfield hosts Everything Under the Sun, a weekly podcast answering children’s questions, out now as a book.

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• This article was amended on 20 July 2024. In an earlier version, one of the quiz answers incorrectly placed Jericho in “southern Turkey”.