Select Special Senses

Exercise 1: Smell Detective

How many smells can you smell? Collect 10 different items with different odors. Make sure none of the items are toxic are hazardous. You or your partner will be smelling these so pick accordingly.

PROCEDURE 

1. Let someone smell all 10 items individually so they are familiar with the different smells.
2. Give a list of the items to this person.
3. Mix two smells together without the test subject knowing which were mixed. Can the person correctly identify the smells your mixed?
4. Mix a totoal of 5 different mixtures of two items each (ie. orange and lemon). Record your results in Data Table 1 in the Student Lab Report Form. Mark how many smells were correctly identified in each trial.
5. Mix three smells together without the test subject knowing which were mixed.
6. Mix a totoal of 5 different mixtures of three items each (ie. orange, apple and lemon). Record your results in Data Table 1 in the Student Lab Report Form. Mark how many smells were correctly identified in each trial.
7. Mix four smells together without the test subject knowing which were mixed.
8. Mix a totoal of 3 different mixtures of four items each (ie. orange, apple, parsley and lemon). Record your results in Data Table 1 in the Student Lab Report Form. Mark how many smells were correctly identified in each trial.

*adapted from - Washington University Senses Lab