A lot of grown-ups are packing up today as the American Association for the Advancement of Science’s annual meeting shuts down in Boston, but earlier in the six-day conference, the halls also were populated by a hordes of science-minded 4th graders.

Or they might have been 3rd graders, but anyhow, they were definitely about 9 years old and smarter than a lot of folks on Fox’s “Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?”

The local school kids were here as part of the AAAS’s Public Science Day, and the session I visited was focused on educating some 300 students about spiders.

“Ew,” came the muffled reply from some of the pizza-chomping, juicebox-swilling children as AAAS’s Media Programs Director Bob Hirshon tried to introduce the topic of spiders above the lunchtime din.

But he quickly launched a Spider Trivia contest, and the kids’ competitive curiosity surged.  Test yourself on some of the questions most of the kids aced (they had multiple choice options to choose from, not shown here):

How many named spider species are currently known to scientists? (40,000)

What is the largest known spider species? (the male Goliath bird-eating spider)

Can spiders live underwater? (yes, consider the water spider of central and northern Europe.)

Can spiders live in the Arctic? (true, 70 spider species live in Greenland alone.)

How long do female tarantulas live? (25 or more years)

Is all spider venom harmful to humans (no. Most spider venom is harmless to humans.)

And finally, what was the name of the giant spider in Lord of the Rings? (Shelob)