Spectacular Senses

Age

Elementary School

Format

Hands-on

Materials

   Jelly Beans
   Cups for Jelly Beans
   Senses poster 

Safety Precautions

Don't allow anyone to choke on the jelly beans.

Preparation

Put the jelly beans into the cups. Hope that's not to hard. =)

Demonstration

Explain physical steps.

What to Say

Tasting:

There are 5 main tastes that are recognized by your tongues. They are recognized by taste buds, which have specific receptors for certain tastes. When you taste something nerve endings at the base of the taste bud cells send electrical signals to the brain where the taste is interpreted.

   Sweet - front
   Salty - front of sides
   Sour - back of sides
   Bitter - back
   Umami - newest discovered taste (only 2000) flavors like MSG - Chinese food 

(Show poster with areas of tongue and tastes) Smell and Taste Connection:

Today we are going to talk about senses. First, can you tell me what the 5 senses are? (sight, smell, taste, touch, hearing). GREAT! Have you ever realized that all of your sense are related?? NO??? Well, now I am going to show you how smell and taste are related. [Have everyone take a jelly bean from a cup but DON'T let them eat it yet] Ok, now everyone take one hand and plug your nose. Now put the jelly bean in your mouth and start chewing. [Let them chew for a few seconds] Ok, unplug your noses! WOW! Did you suddenly start to taste the jelly bean once you unplugged your nose?? YEAH!!! Well that is because smell and taste are related. But I bet you already knew this - have you ever not been able to taste your favorite foods when your nose is stuffed up from having a cold?? Or have you ever tasted something and said "That tastes like dirt!" or "That tastes like a flower!" when you have never really eaten dirt or any flowers?? You can do this because you have smelled flowers or have smelled dirt so you can know what it tastes like. [Now show them the poster 9the one from the food tasting demo - not with the cookies)] Did you know that ____% (on poster) When you chew food, it releases odor particles that can be detected by the olfactory receptor in the back of the nose (look at the poster and see the regular smell - yellow line, and then the retro-nasal smell - pink line, that comes from the mouth - i.e. chewing food.)