Senses project

1) PARTCIPANT RECRUITMENT Recruit the required number of subjects – use both male and female subjects and various age groups if possible. 2) DESCRIPTION OF PARTICIPANTS Describe each of your subjects by age, gender, particular characteristics, health issues, etc. DO NOT USE YOURSELF AS A TEST SUBJECT!! 3) FOLLOW DIRECTIONS FOR INDIVIDUAL PROJECT SELECTED 4) EXPLANATION OF EXPERIMENT Provide a DETAILED explanation of how you conducted your experiment. How you approached the subjects? How you presented the various elements of the experiment. 5) PARTICIPANT COMMENTS Have EACH of your participants provide comments related to their experience in your project. Some might indicate a particular smell or taste reminded them of a memory. Others might comment on some objects were more readily recognizable than others. 6) CHART/GRAPH Create a chart showing the analysis of your results (see examples). 7) DETAILED CHART ANALYSIS Provide a written explanation of your chart. In other words, explain what occurred in your experiment. (EX: 4 persons were unable to detect the smell of lemon; 3 of the 8 individuals could not distinguish the tennis ball in the sock) 8. Describe what did you learn from doing this experiment? PROJECT ONE (1) – SMELL We can recognize a wide variety of smells. Some smells can stir up memories. To demonstrate the sense of smell (olfaction), collect several items that have distinctive smells. Subjects 5-7 (minimum of 5) Materials: 1) Collect 8-10 of the following items or select others you would like to utilize. lemon orange peel cedar wood perfume soaked cotton banana pine needles chocolate coffee dirt vanilla garlic onion mint vinegar moth balls flowers ginger peppermint pencil shavings dried herbs (oregano, basil, rosemary, etc), spices (cinnamon, etc.) 2) Use only small amounts of each item and instruct students to take only small whiffs from each container. Be especially careful with perfume and moth balls. Instructions: Keep the items separated and enclosed in plastic containers so that the odors do not mix. Place a blindfold on each subject (or punch holes in the top of the containers to eliminate the need of a blindfold) and ask them to 1) Identify the item by smell. 2) Rate the odor (strong, pleasant, neutral, [bad or good for young kids]) 3) Tell about any memories associated with the smells. 4) Make a chart to organize your results. 5) Provide a written analysis of your findings.