One thing that has always bothered me about trivia games is how easy they are. Well, I’m glad to say that I have finally found a game where that is most certainly not an issue. For Christmas, my mother bought me Blinded By Science Trivia Game, a trivia game about just about every type of science. Because that name is really long, I’m just going to call it Blinded By Science. 
Everything in this game, starting from the instructions, are science-y. The number of rounds in a game are the amount of colors in the rainbow for a short game, the number of the mission number of the Apollo spaceflight that brought Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin to the moon for a regular game, and the atomic number of phosphorus for a long game. Granted, you can choose to play more or less rounds depending on timing, and yes, they did include the numbers for the rounds, not just the clues. The first player to go is whichever one most closely resembles Charles Darwin.
How many cards go on the table depends on how many rounds and players there are. Multiply the rounds by the players and lay that many cards face down on the table. Each card has a name on the back that gives some clue to what the questions are about (for instance, Elementary, My Dear, was about the elements, and Bring Me A Shrubbery is about plants.) Most cards have three questions, but some have extra credit as well. Each question is worth a point.
Some questions are True or False, some are multiple choice, and some are open-ended. True or False questions include, “True or False? Penicillin was the first antibiotic widely used in modern medicine,” and “True or False? The parrotfish eats coral and poops sand.” Multiple choice questions are rare and include, “Which of the following are killed, or their growth impaired, with the use of antibiotics: bacteria, fungi, or viruses?” and open-ended questions make up the majority of the cards, with questions like, “What acid is added to silicone oil to produce Silly Putty?” and “Tomatoes are a member of what often toxic family?”
The answers to these, in order, as I’m sure you would love to know, are False, True, bacteria, Boric acid, and the Nightshade family. Yes, there is actually a type of fish that poops sand. How does that work? I have no clue, the card didn’t say. Sometimes, the card does include more information about the answer. For instance, the question about penicillin I mentioned above said, “False (sulfonamides were first; penicillin was discovered in 1928, but was not used to treat infections until 1942)”. Personally, I appreciate these notes, particularly with True or False and multiple choice questions.
You play through all of the cards, and whoever has the most points wins. There is also a version of the game where you play in teams, working together to answer the questions and gain points, though I haven’t played that option.
I think this game is a good geography lesson. You get to see where the cities are in the grand scheme of things. It’s also a good lesson in building off of what you have, since you only have a limited amount of train tracks. Thus you reuse tracks a lot. I did get lucky, my three initial tickets were New York to Atlanta, New York to Dallas, and New York to Los Angeles.
