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TASTE

The receptors in the mouth are also sensitive to chemicals, like the nose. Our mouths have a variety of taste buds specifically geared to certain tastes like sweet and sour. Some animals have a lot more taste buds than we do and it makes us curious about what we may be missing. Fish might taste completely different for a bird than it does for a human just as the world looks very different for insects than it does for humans. Taste buds can be influenced by environmental factors as well or can be temporary or permanently damaged. When we have a cold or have burned our tongue on hot liquids, for instance, our taste buds don't work as well as they normally do.

EXPERIMENT

Test Your Taste Buds:

When you stick your tongue out in front of a mirror, you may notice a lot of bumps on it. These bumps are filled with taste buds, about 9000 of them for humans. Taste buds can help us recognize certain foods just by identifying four basic tastes: sweet, sour, bitter, and salty.

Try these taste bud tests several times, in different orders and both separately and in combination tests. Keep several of your own diagrams of the tongue where you can record the results of your experiments.

  • Place sugar on different areas of your tongue. What part of the tongue tastes the sweetness of the sugar? Do you only taste sweetness? What do you taste in other areas?
  • Place lemon juice on different areas of your tongue. What part of the tongue tastes the sourness of the lemon juice? Do you only taste sourness? What do you taste in other areas?
  • Place salt on different areas of your tongue. What part of the tongue tastes the saltiness of the salt? Do you only taste saltiness? What do you taste in other areas?
  • Place tonic water on different areas of your tongue. What part of the tongue tastes the bitterness of the tonic water? Do you only taste bitterness? What do you taste in other areas?

EXPERIMENT

Test Your Sense of Smell & Taste:

Prepare a sample plate of snacks. Have everyone take turns tasting them while wearing blindfolds and plugging the nose so that you can neither see nor smell the food. Try and figure out what you're tasting. Now try the experiment still with the blindfold on, but don't plug your nose. Are the scores any better? If you like you can try the experiment a third time again with the blindfold on and your nose unplugged, but this time rub some vanilla extract, peanut butter, or cinnamon on your upper lip. How does this change the scores? What other sense have you tested here? Depending on whether the snacks are being fed to you, or you are picking them up yourself, you may also be testing your sense of touch.

Some of the sample snacks to choose from include:

CARROT CHOCOLATE
CHEESE BOLOGNA
CELERY  

 

(click on each heading above for fun & experiments for each sense)