Senses

You can learn about your world in many ways. Seeing, hearing, feeling, smelling, and tasting are the five senses that send messages to your brain about the world around you. You use your senses all the time, even when you don't know it!

#1. Only the Nose Knows
Your sense of smell can be very helpful. For example, if food smells bad, you probably won't eat it Here is a "smell "test to try out on a friend.
You will need:

You might start with the following: cinnamon powder, lemon peel, pepper, clove powder, nutmeg, chili powder, garlic powder, soap, toothpaste, or baby powder. Ask an adult to help you find more spices from the kitchen or other things with strong smells.
1. Break apart the egg carton into separate little cups.
2. Put a small amount of one thing to smell in each cup. Write on a piece of paper what each smell is and attach it to a cup.
3. Blindfold a friend. Have her guess what each smell is, using only her nose. Check her answers by reading the papers.

OR

I am coming down with a cold, and as often happens, I used that recent event to help decide which experiment to use this week. Think back to the last time you had a cold. (Hopefully, it was long ago.) Do you remember that while your head was stopped up, none of your food tasted very good?

Lets find out why. You will need:

1. Wash the fruits and vegetables. Carefully, cut two 1/2 an inch cubes from
the inside of the apple. Cut 2 cubes the same size from the inside of the
potato, the carrot and any other fruits or vegetables that you use. Label
each pair of cubes, so you will know which is which.

2. You will need a friend to help you. Close your eyes and hold your nose.
This will block out any smells. Breath in and out through your mouth a few
times, keeping your eyes closed. If you can't keep from peeking, use a towel
as a blindfold. Have your friend place one of the cubes into your mouth.
KEEP HOLDING YOUR NOSE. Chew the cube and notice the taste. See if you can
identify which food it is. Your friend should write down your answer, but
not tell you if you are correct. Still holding your nose, try one of each
kind of cube.

3. Once you have tried them all, you may release your nose and breath normally.
Still keeping your eyes closed, taste the second cube of each kind. Again,
have your friend write down your answers. Keep careful notes. Instead of
just having your friend write down "apple," have them write down a
description of what you taste. Remember that this is not a contest to see if
you can get it right. Instead, it is test to see which flavors you can taste
and which ones you can't. The apple may taste a bit sweet, but does it taste
like an apple? The carrot may be crunchier than the apple, but how different
is the taste? Once you are done, you may take off the blindfold and compare
your answers.

4. This experiment works better with some people than with others, as some
people are more sensitive to tastes and textures than others. A lot will
also depend on the vegetables. With your nose blocked, you can still taste
some basic flavors (salt, sour, etc.) but much of the normal taste will be
missing. You will also be able to feel differences in texture, so be sure
that you select vegetables of similar firmness.

5. Once you have tried this yourself, you may want to try it with friends or
family. It would be interesting to see if the ability to taste varied with
age or with other differences. One of the fun things about such simple
experiments is that you can adapt them into a wide variety of investigations.

#2. Making a Better Ear
Many animals depend upon their sense of hearing to find food. Do you ever wish that you could hear better? Let's see if you can make a better ear.
For this activity you are going to need:

With these materials, design a pair of ears that will hear the ticking of the clock before anyone else. Should they be small or should they be large? Should they be long or should they be short? Try it!

When you are ready to test your ears, have someone take the ticking clock across the room. Close your eyes and listen. You might want to turn your body so that your ears face the direction of the clock. The person with the clock will move closer to you. As soon as you hear the clock ticking, raise your hand and sit down. May the best ears win! Talk about what you have learned from this activity with the rest of the group. Can you find some pictures of animals that have ears like the ones that you made?

#3. Now You See It
Can you always believe you eyes? Make a toy that used your eyes to trick you. If you close your eye tight, what do you see? You will see the last thing you were looking at.
You will need:

1. Hold the paper so that it looks like a diamond, not a square. On one side, in the middle of the paper, draw a fishbowl without the fish.
2. On the other side of the paper, draw a fish. Place your fish on the paper so that if you hold your paper up the light, the fish would be swimming in the fishbowl.
3. Tape your paper onto the pencil point, with the bottom of the diamond at the top of the pencil tip.
4. Hold the pencil upright between your hands. Rotate the pencil so the paper flips back and forth. Look at the paper. Where is the fish? Why do you think it is there?

OR

A thaumatrope is a card with different designs on each side which, when the card is twirled, blend into one.
Create one or both of these nature thaumatropes.

  1. Copy this page.
  2. Cut out a pair of pictures. You can make them square or circular.
  3. If you cut out square shapes, glue them both right-side-up on opposite sides of a pencil or straw. Place the pencil between your palms and rub your palms in opposite directions, back and forth.
  4. If you cut out circular shapes, place one upside-down behind the other. Then poke a tiny hole on the sides of both papers and tie a string (about 6" each) into each hole. Now twirl the string so it gets cork-screwed. Then alternately relax the pull and tighten the pull on the string so it rotates.
  5. In both cases, you should begin to see both images at the same time!

 

#4. Can You Feel It?
Your sense of touch helps you find things in the dark and to tell hot from cold. Insects have antennae to help them feel their way around. You have hands.
For this activity you will need:

Put one of each into each of the paper bags. Shake the bags up, then reach into each bag without looking. Can you find the matching objects using only your sense of touch?

#5. Mapping the Tongue
Think about the different kinds of tastes. Mmmmmmm. They can be sweet, salty, sour, or bitter. When you eat something, does your whole tongue taste it? Find out how and where you taste things by making a map of your tongue.
You will need:

Do not share the dishes or the cotton swabs or the cup.

1. Place 1 teaspoon of each of the substances - sugar (sweet), vinegar (sour), salt (salty), and grapefruit juice (bitter) -- into a different dish or canister. Add a little water to each of the first three.
2. Draw a big letter "U" on your paper. This is your tongue map.
3. Dip a cotton swab in the sweet solution. Touch it to at least four different parts of your tongue. Wherever you taste something sweet on your tongue, mark the same unit
on your tongue "map" in one color of crayon.
4. Rinse out your mouth very well with water. Use a different cotton
swab and a different solution to do the next parts of your map for
salty, bitter, and sour tastes. Rinse out your mouth between each
solution.
5. You now have a map of your tongue's taste buds. Does your tongue taste the same flavors in the same spots? Where does your tongue taste things that are sweet, salty, sour, and bitter?
6. Compare your map with the map of another girl's tongue map. Are they the same?

#6. What's It Like?
What is it like to be missing one of your senses? How do you communicate if you cannot hear? People who cannot hear often use sign language to communicate with others. Learn how to sign your name using the sign language alphabet on page 86 of your Brownie Girl Scout Handbook or learn how to say the Girl Scout Promise or some other phrase in sign language.


Other Helpful Links:
 Science Explorer: Ear Guitar--share secret so...
Interactive Finger Spelling and Braille Guide
Illusion Works - Interactive Optical Illusions
B EYE - See the World through the eye of a honeybee
 Neuroscience Resources for Kids - Mapping the Tongue - taste tests
American Sign Language Browser
Animated American Sign Language Dictionary
HandSpeak - A Sign Language Dictionary
Basic Dictionary of ASL Terms, A

Brownie Try-Its Page