Everyone Loves A Quiz by Chris Lloyd
As we gear up for National Non-Fiction November, we are so thrilled to share an exciting and unique opportunity for schools to get involved with. Please read Chris Lloyd’s blog about quizzes and our fascination with them and towards the end of the blog, Chris announces the chance to get involved and win some books for your school!
Everyone loves a quiz!
It’s true, we are a nation of quizzers. But surprisingly the quiz, as we know it today, is a fairly modern invention. According to Britannica, its first appearance as a knowledge test was in the Oxford English Dictionary of 1867 – before that the term was mostly used to denote a practical joke or ‘witticism’.
In today’s culture, we are obsessed with quizzes – from the pub weekly to in depth psychometric profiling. One of the best facets of the quiz is that they appeal to all ages – they are democratic in the true sense that with each question, a new level playing field is created and within an instant it could be YOU that gets the answer right!
And when you do – boy, what a jolt of joy and pride courses through your veins. Actually, it’s the brain’s reward system, the product of millions of years of evolution, that is instantly lit up with a hefty shot of dopamine – the naturally generated brain chemical that makes us feel good to be alive.
So what better way to engage children in reading, learning and in building up their confidence and pride than with a quiz? Ever since I started creating non-fiction books for young people, I have tried to involve a quiz at the back, so they can recap, reinforce and test their knowledge on what information is inside. This was true of all my six fold-out timeline wallbooks, (World History, Nature, Sport, Science, Shakespeare and British History) which each have a 50-question multiple choice quiz at the end. Even more fun is that children can use these brain-teasers to test their peers or the adults in their lives (parents, teachers or libraries). How much fun is it for a child when an adult is stumped by a quiz question featured in a children’s book? This dynamic is key to making learning fun and building up positive dialogues between generations.
And so to Britannica Magazine – my latest attempt to help amplify this traffic of learning within the school classroom or family unit. Every month, this fun filled, non-fiction, printed magazine aims to engage all curious brains from 6-106 with amazing stories about the real work around us. And every month you can tackle the Big Britannica Quiz – a double page spread of multiple-choice brain teasers from right across the knowledge spectrum.
To celebrate National Non-fiction November, we are teaming up with the Federation of Children’s Book Groups to bring you the Britannica Magazine Schools Quiz Championship 2022! So if you know a school that would like to enter a team, then please visit www.britannicamagazine.co.uk/schools. Ask them to register for the Britannica Magazine Schools Club (which is free) and details of how schools can enter the contest will be sent by email by the end of this month.
By the end of National Non-fiction November, we can reveal which school is the overall champion – with more than £1000 worth of non-fiction books for the school library as a prize. It could be YOURS! Now that’s surely enough to give anyone a decent dopamine fix…
For any further details or information by all means email me at chris@whatonearthbooks.com