Did you learn science from The Magic School Bus as a kid?

By: Olivia Seitz
Estimated Completion Time
4 min
Did you learn science from The Magic School Bus as a kid?
Image: Magic School Bus

About This Quiz

"The Magic School Bus" is beloved by many for its zany episodes and cool science concepts. Feeling nostalgic yet? Take this quiz to see what you remember from the show!
"The Magic School Bus" is led by Ms. Frizzle, who the kids refer to as what?
The FZ
The Friz
THE BEST
Ms. Fran
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Ms. Frizzle is the star of the show: she brings energy and adventure to each episode as she whisks children off to explore science on the (ironically named) magic school bus.

Kids boarding the bus are greeted with the phrase,"_________, everyone!"
Sit tight
Seat belts
Stay together
Look at that
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Leave it to Scholastic to work a plug for travel safety into their educational show. Kids boarding the magic school bus are always encouraged to wear their seat belts!

What is the name of Ms. Frizzle's pet lizard?
Sammy
Chameo
Liz
Sir Spitsalot
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Ms. Frizzle's pet lizard, Liz, is almost always along for the ride. She enjoys hopping around the bus from Ms. Frizzle's shoulder to the children and back.

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What do islands have to do with underwater volcanoes?
Absolutely nothing.
Some islands have volcanoes beneath the surface.
Many islands are created by underwater volcanoes.
The two ideas are inseparable.
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

In "Blows Its Top," the class and Ms. Frizzle visit the making of a new island. They help the volcano along and enjoy the ride on their lava-proof magic bus.

During the title song, the singer croons, "You might get baked into a ______ on the magic school bus!"
brulee
pie
chip
tart
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

The song references many of the class's adventures, including the time that Ms. Frizzle gets them baked into a pie to understand the chemical reactions going on inside an oven.

What do the kids learn makes a cake rise?
sugar
eggs
flour
baking soda
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

The baking soda and water combine to make bubbles of carbon dioxide, which rise toward the surface and bring some cake batter along with them.

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While exploring outer space, what happens to Ms. Frizzle?
she accidentally leaves the kids behind
she gets separated from the bus
she sticks only to the planets closest to Earth
all of the above
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

While teaching the kids about the solar system, Ms. Frizzle and Liz get knocked out of the bus by an asteroid, so the students have to find and rescue her.

Where does the class investigate sound waves?
in the opera house
in a haunted museum
at a TV news station
in the classroom
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

The group travels to a sound museum that the kids fear is haunted. It's the perfect opportunity for Ms. Frizzle to teach them about sound waves and give them a little fright.

What alternate sources of power does the class consider for running a Ferris wheel when the electricity goes out?
wind
water
gravity
all of the above
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

The students learn about and compare the efficacy of alternate ways to power machines, including wind, running water, gravity and sheer strength.

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When a student has to stay home sick, what does the group do?
they send him a "get well soon" card
they go on a field trip without him
they board the bus and explore his immune system
they cancel the day's activities in lieu of a totally normal science lesson
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Obviously, the only thing TO do when Ralphie is sick is to travel through his bloodstream and investigate what's making him cough and sneeze.

When a student's frog escapes, what does the class do?
they chase it on foot
they follow it in a frog-shaped bus
they let it go in peace
they construct amphibian habitats in class
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Clearly, the thing to do when your frog escapes is to hop in a mechanical frog and follow it to see where it goes. The episode explores amphibians' natural homes.

The squad investigates decomposition by exploring what?
a marsh
a compost bin
a rotten log
a mushroom theme park
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

The students learn how rot is actually an important source of food for new life growing in the woods. They realize that clearing out all the natural debris in a forest would do more harm than good.

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In the desert episode, Ms. Frizzle exclaims, "If you can't take the ____, get out of the desert!"
heat
arid climate
baking sun
storms
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

When the magic school bus explores the desert, the students learn about adaptations organisms have to survive the desert weather, including burrows, sleeping during the day and storing extra water.

Why does the class scramble to fix Ms. Frizzle's doorbell on Valentine's Day?
they broke it - oops!
they think she has a date coming over
she's sick and can't do it herself
they just feel like it
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

They overheard a phone conversation which made it sound like Ms. Frizzle had a hot date coming up, but really she was just calling over an electrician to fix the doorbell. At least they learned about electricity in the process!

The class learns about ______ when Arnold accidentally swallows the bus.
rafting
hazmat suits
digestion
free-falling
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Ms. Frizzle lets poor Arnold stay behind for once, only to bring the class on a trip through his digestive system. Fortunately, none of them fell into his stomach acid.

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During an episode that explores nocturnal creatures (especially bats), what is Ralphie worried about?
they'll be eaten by bats
Ms. Frizzle is a vampire
they'll get guano on their heads
they'll disturb the bats
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

She dresses up like Count Dracula and takes them to a castle to explore the lives of bats. They learn about everything from what bats eat to how bats navigate with echolocation.

What does the class use to catch a giant praying mantis that runs amok in a cheesy movie?
bug spray
Liz, as bait
a spider web
a cardboard box
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

The bus transforms into a giant spider and spins a web large enough to trap the giant mantis. Then, they're able to shrink the mantis and set it free rather than kill it as the movie characters wanted to do.

The class learns about forces through a "frictionless" ______ game.
board
baseball
hide and seek
telephone
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Ms. Frizzle combines Ralphie's love of baseball with a physics lesson when the bus takes a trip inside a physics book. Only the magic school bus could take them somewhere really frictionless to explore Newtonian physics.

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In the episode "Gets Ants in its Pants," what do the students learn about ants?
they are mean, nasty creatures
they practice cannibalism
they are well-coordinated and social
they don't need food to survive
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Ant colonies are an example of social behavior in the animal kingdom: the ants work together to build an anthill and bring food to the queen so she can propagate the species.

How does the class learn about dinosaurs?
checking out an archaeological dig
traveling over sixty million years back in time
examining fossils
all of the above
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

To learn about dinosaurs, the class gets a full tour: not only do they see what scientists investigate to learn about dinosaurs, they get to see the dinosaurs in action, too.

During a trip to the zoo, what does Ms. Frizzle do?
turns everyone into animals
drives the bus through the penguin exhibit
imitates the monkeys
actually doesn't do anything zany
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Who are we kidding? Of course Ms. Frizzle would find some way to make the field trip crazy, so she turns all the students into animals and lets them run amok.

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Keesha learns that her prize-winning cucumber turned into a ______ because of microbes.
puddle of goo
pickle
snack
compost pile
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

The bacteria growing on the cucumber helped it turn into a pickle instead of just rotting like the veggies that were left out in the open.

During an episode about the food chain, the bus is eaten by what?
a fox
a tuna
a shark
a seagull
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

You read that right - they got eaten by a tunafish. Why? Two students forgot about an assignment to pair two beach items, and Ms. Frizzle was inspired to show them the connection.

What does Ms. Frizzle's class learn about the pet lizard?
She's cold-blooded.
She doesn't like people.
She likes eating mice.
She can go without water for two weeks.
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Reptiles are cold-blooded; in other words, they don't produce their own body heat to keep themselves warm. They seek out warm spaces like the sidewalk to soak up some sun when they're cold.

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How do honeybees communicate with the hive?
by flapping their wings at different rates
by making low, gutterral noises
by dancing
by singing
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Bees can tell the other bees in the hive where to find more flowers by doing a dance that illustrates the directions the bees have to take to get there. In "The Magic School Bus," the class has to figure out how to dance so that the bees will find the last flowers of the season.

What does the miniaturized class use to build a bridge to escape Wanda's bathroom?
Q-tips
band-aids
floss
all of the above
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

The episode is an introduction to basic construction using at-home supplies. The class has to build something strong enough not to collapse under their weight, but long enough to get them where they need to go.

Where does the class go to investigate circulation?
a morgue
Ms. Frizzle's lungs
the gym teacher's muscles
a heart museum
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

To understand the role circulation plays in exercise, the class hops on the magic school bus and visits Ms. Frizzle's lungs, where they can discover how blood is oxygenated.

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Plants take in nutrients through what?
leaves
roots
flowers
all of the above
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

While leaves absorb the energy needed for the plant to grow, the roots soak up water and minerals as food. Naturally, Ms. Frizzle teaches this to the class by turning one of her students into a plant and taking the rest on a field trip to her roots.

In the episode about rainbows, Ms. Frizzle shows the class how you can use what to separate white light into colors?
a microwave
a flashlight
a prism
a pinball
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

A prism refracts the light that enters it so that it's split into the color spectrum, creating a rainbow. The prism bends the path of the light as it enters and different wavelengths are separated.

What does the class find is causing a cocoa bean shortage?
a drought
a blight
artificial turf
a cocoa bean thief
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

In the convoluted rainforest episode, the students learn that the cocoa trees weren't producing beans because the bugs that pollinated them had no home, thanks to the caretaker replacing the natural muddy environment with artificial turf.

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According to Keesha, what is an empty pickle jar filled with?
bad smells
vinegar residue
air
love
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

The class explores just what air really is - even though most people would say the pickle jar is empty, Keesha talks about how it is full of air. When the class investigates, they learn about the properties of gases.

What happens to the star the class purchased for Dorothy Ann?
It explodes in a supernova.
It lives on for millions of years.
It slowly grows cold.
It becomes a black hole.
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

When the class buys a star for her birthday, they choose one that is large and red. As it turns out, it was a red supergiant on the brink of going supernova, so they witness the explosion from the magic school bus. Then they gather the pieces and make a brand new star for D.A.

When their Smell Search entry is compromised with skunk smell, what does the class do?
Whip up a new batch just in time
Zap the skunk smell molecules before they enter the judge's nose
Travel through time to stop the smell from being added
Lose the competition but learn a lot about odors
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

By eliminating the molecules that cause the skunk smell, they're able to leave the rest of the smell intact and win the competition.

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In the coral reef, what does the class learn?
there's always buried treasure somewhere
cooperation is the key to success
shrimp live lonely lives
salt water doesn't taste so good
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Ms. Frizzle turns them all into sea-dwellers like shrimp, anemones and remoras. To reach their goal of finding buried treasure, they have to learn how the coral reefs use cooperation to survive.

Who is a recurring villain in the series?
Arnold
Dorothy Ann
Ralphie
Janet
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Janet, Arnold's cousin, is often a foil to the rest of the class, siding against them on issues and even sabotaging a science-fair-related project.

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Magic School Bus