taste and other senses

Here's a couple of really easy experiments you can do to show how taste is linked to your other senses of smell and sight.

Taste and Smell #1: Parma Violets

Have the kids pinch their nose and pop a couple of parma violets in their mouth. What do they taste like? Now tell them to unpinch their nose... how does the taste change with the added sense of smell?

Taste and Smell #2: Blind Taste Testing

Cut some apple, pear and potato into cubes of the same size.

Have the kids work in pairs. One of them puts on a blindfold and the other feeds them one cube each of apple, pear and potato. Ask them which cube was which. According to the websites I consulted before trying this experiment out they should be unable to tell as the texture of the 3 are very similar, but the smell differentiates them. In reality, the taste of the potato is different enough that you can reliably tell which one it is. However, the pear and apple are quite difficult to tell apart, as long as you buys ones that don't have very different textures.

You can also do this experiment with different flavours of yogurt; for example chocolate, vanilla and natural yogurt.

What does this tell us about taste and smell?

When eating, some of the molecules travel into your nasal cavity and react with your olfactory nerves (smell receptors), and that is transmitted to your brain. So both the signals from our taste buds as well as the signals from our noses that combine to tell us what flavour a food or drink is. When your nose is blocked or pinched it is more difficult to tell what the flavour of something is because smell is a stronger sense than taste.

Taste and Sight #1: Sweetie Guess

You will need sweets which are different colours and flavours, and where the flavour corresponds with the colour of the sweet. You can try jelly beans, or skittles.

Have the kids work in pairs. Put a blindfold on one of them and have them try the different flavours of sweet and guess what the flavours are. Write down their answers. The second person tries the flavours without the blindfold. Who had the most correct guesses?

Taste and Sight #2: What Flavour is my Pop?

You will need a variety of flavoured fizzy pops, plus one clear pop. We used: cherry, lemon-lime, orange, and club soda for the unflavoured one. Add some food colouring to the unflavoured pop. We used red food colouring.

Have the children taste all of the fizzy pops, and write down what they think the flavour is. How many of them wrote down blackcurrant/cherry for the unflavoured one?

What does this tell us about taste and sight?

When blindfolded we sometimes get the flavours wrong. A lot of the kids today got the Skittles flavours wrong when they could not see the colours. We use sight to help us determine what flavour something might be. People tend to prefer their food to be the colour they expect.