Expert: Sue Kayton Date: 3/20/2008 Subject: 1st grade science project
Question My son has to do a science fair project on human body. he wanted to do - what does the brain do? he's researched and found the 5 senses. how do we incorporate an experiment out of it?
Answer Here's a fun experiment. Most people don't realize that smell and taste are very closely linked. If you block someone's sense of smell, they can't taste the difference between a slice of raw potato and a slice of apple. The most popular way to do this is to dip a Q-tip (cotton swab) in something smelly and tape it to the upper lip so the smell confuses the nose. Repeat the experiment with a bunch of friends.
You can also try testing sight v. touch. With the kids blindfolded, can they identify common items by touch? Things like cloth, sandpaper, plastic wrap, etc. Think of things that feel similar, but look very different. Or things that look similar, but feel different. Plastic coated with a shiny thin film looks like metal, but doesn't feel cold like metal.
