Author: Eve Pranis*
Overview: Students explore a variety of aromatic substances, reflect on the memories and feelings they evoke, and try to describe them. Next, as they try to taste without using their sense of smell, they begin to grasp the importance of this remarkable adaptation.
Background
Nothing else arouses our "taste buds" like our sense of smell. In fact, scientists believe that 75 percent of what we perceive as taste actually comes from the aromas we take in! And no surprise; after all, we only perceive four flavors (salty, sweet, sour, and bitter; some add a fifth, called umami), but our brains perceive more than 30,000 smell sensations! Most of us can only recognize about five to ten thousand.
The scent of food makes it, well, worth eating! When that pizza comes, we revel in the smell before it even gets close. But that's just part of it. When we take a bite, odor molecules also go straight from our mouths to a place deep within our nasal cavity. In both cases, aromatic signals travel to an area of the brain associated with memories and emotions.
Odors actually come from families of volatile chemicals too numerous to mention. So to make the task of describing smells manageable, food and wine connoisseurs describe them by using analogies to flowers, fruits, herbs, spices, other foods (e.g., yeast), and nonfood substances (e.g., smoke).
Materials/Preparation: Gather small bottles, film canisters, or plastic containers with lids. Put equal amounts of a different aromatic substance in each container: vanilla, an herb, perfume, cinnamon, cocoa powder, detergent, toast crumbs, dried peppermint, vinegar, lemon peel, garlic, and so on.
If you use clear containers, you should obscure what's inside. You can put drops of liquids on cotton wads and put solid foods under cotton wads; or you could cover containers with dark paper. Poke a hole in the lid of each jar and mark the jar with a letter.
Exploration
1. Line up the aromatic containers on a table or counter. As students go from bottle to bottle with a notebook in hand, direct them to carefully smell each one and then write these things in their notebooks: 1) any memory, feeling, or activity the aroma brings to mind, 2) words that describe what they smell, 3) guesses about what they are actually smelling. Nonwriters can discuss their responses with you.
2. Discuss students' experiences and notebook entries. Ask, Which smells did you like most, and why? How do you think the substances taste? Which did you like least? Which were easier (harder) to describe, and why? What conclusions can you draw about our sense of smell?
Making Connections
3. Finally, ask, Which do you think is more important when we eat: our sense of smell or our sense of taste? Consider having students explore this question by sampling slices of two mystery foods: apples and pears. Have partners work together on the challenge. One student should be blindfolded and hold his or her nose. The other should give the taster the slices, one at a time. Ask, Are the samples the same or different? How can you tell? (Students may notice texture differences.) What does each taste like? Next, students should unplug their noses, taste again, and try to identify the flavors. Ask, What did you notice about the taste test? What do you think made the difference? What new questions do you have? Revisit and discuss the initial question.
Digging Deeper
Aroma Journal
Challenge students to keep diaries of everything they do for a day that involves some aroma. They should write down what they did along with an adjective to describe the smell (e.g., I woke up and smelled strong coffee. I brushed my teeth and smelled something minty.).
Smell with Words
Build students' vocabulary by asking them to come up with synonyms for the word smell or odor (e.g., fragrance, stink, stench). Next, have them come up with adjectives to describe types of odors (e.g., gentle, penetrating, putrid, fetid, acrid, sour, garlicky, sweet).
Aromatic Cultural Cuisine
Many types of aromatic herbs and spices are associated with dishes of a particular region or ethnic group. In fact, the titles of some dishes include the name of the aromatic ingredient (e.g., rosemary bread). Students can research their own region or the ethnicities represented in class in search of dishes that rely upon specific aromatic ingredients. Each young detective should share the name of the dishes they find and the aromatic ingredients that help define them. If practical, try to taste some of these in class, first with just your noses, and then with your mouths, too!
*Activity inspired by Italy's Saying, Doing, Tasting: Taste Education Journeys in School.