Science Buddies
Science Buddies: The Nose Knows Smell but How About Taste?
As if sniffles and clogged sinuses are bad enough, everything seems to taste bland and flavorless when we are sick. Gather up a few volunteers, hit the kitchen, and try this experiment to find out if there is really truth to the idea...
CK-12 Foundation
Ck 12: Life Science: Taste and Smell
[Free Registration/Login may be required to access all resource tools.] Imagine you open a gallon of milk, and you suddenly smell a foul odor. Your sense of smell has informed you that the milk has spoiled. So you pour the spoiled milk...
Merck Sharp & Dohme Corp.
Merck Manual: Smell and Taste Disorders
The Merck Manual offers an interesting article that describes ways in which your sense of smell can be affected. Diagnosis and treatment for loss of smell are also discussed.
Other
Leffingwell and Associates: Olfaction
Provides a technical discussion of the anatomy and physiology involved in the receptors associated with the sense of smell. Includes pictures and formulas.
Read Works
Read Works: Sense and Sensibility
[Free Registration/Login Required] An informational text about the sense of smell and the sense of taste. A question sheet is available to help students build skills in reading comprehension.
University of Washington
The Senses
This site has a collection of learning activities, games, experiments, and lesson plans on the five senses. Organized by grade level and topic, this site is packed with an assortment of interactive and engaging activities, that would...
University of Washington
University of Washington: Nose Structure and Function
Discusses how the structures of the noseinteract to produce our sense of smell.Has links to lab activities and teacher lessonson this topic.
PBS
Pbs Teachers: Mystery of the Senses Smell
Understand how the sense of smell has strong connection to the limbic region of the brain and experience how the brain associates smells with memories and emotions.
Scholastic
Scholastic: Study Jams! Science: The Human Body: The Senses: Smelling
Self-playing slideshow, with an accompanying quiz, explains the anatomy and sensorial function of the nose.
South Carolina Educational Television
Etv: Nasa Online: Sense of Smell
Animation demonstrates how the nose perceives and interprets a smell.
Aetna Intelihealth
Aetna: Inteli Health: How the Five Senses Change With Age
This article discusses the link between anatomical changes related to aging and sensory loss. Delves into the problems associated with each of the five senses.
TED Talks
Ted: Ted Ed: How Do We Smell?
An adult human can distinguish up to 10,000 odors. You use your nose to figure out what to eat, what to buy and even when it's time to take a shower. But how do the molecules in the air get translated into smells in your brain? This...
National Institutes of Health
National Library of Medicine: Using Our Senses
This lesson plan site delves into the senses of smell, touch, taste, sight, and hearing. Students will be able to describe the ways senses affect their lives and how a pediatrician uses his/her senses to examine patients.
Curated OER
Web Gallery of Art: The Sense of Smell
An image of "The Sense of Smell", created by Jan the Elder Brueghel in 1618 (Oil on panel, 65 x 109 cm).
Alabama Learning Exchange
Alex: Have You Seen My Mother?
This activity will introduce the sense of smell. It will show how an animal, such as a bat, finds its baby by using the sense of smell. Students will have the opportunity to view information on the Internet to learn more about bats. They...
Georgia Department of Education
Ga Virtual Learning: Anatomy and Physiology: Senses
Through informational text with printable notes, animations, video clips, and practice problems students discover the function of the sensory structures in the human body.
Ducksters
Ducksters: Biology for Kids: Smelling and Tasting
Kids learn about the science of smelling and tasting. Two senses of the human body.
The Franklin Institute
The Franklin Institute Online: Coming to Our Senses
Help students make "Sense," of their senses by using them in the classroom. Site provides discovery activities students can do on themselves, in their classrooms and around campus. A scavenger hunt is also provided.
Curated OER
Web Gallery of Art: Conversation Piece (The Sense of Smell)
An image of "Conversation Piece (The Sense of Smell)", created by Jan Ii Ekels, c. 1791 (Oil on canvas, 66 x 60 cm).
Society for Science and the Public
Science News for Students: Making Sense of Scents
How does your nose work in combination with your brain to analyze all the different scents you smell? Find out what scientists have discovered after studying how mouse brain cells react to different scents.
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Can You Taste It?
Few people are aware of how crucial the sense of smell is to identifying foods, or the adaptive value of being able to identify a food as being familiar and therefore safe to eat. In this lesson and activity, young scholars conduct an...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: A Tasty Experiment
Students conduct an experiment to determine whether or not the sense of smell is important to being able to recognize foods by taste. They do this by attempting to identify several different foods that have similar textures. For some of...
American Museum of Natural History
American Museum of Natural History: Taste a Smell Test
Take the jellybean test to see how your sense of smell enhances taste.
PBS
Pbs Teachers:wild Places: Follow Your Nose
Explore the migration behavior of various animals, and investigate the sense of smell as a tracking device for these migrations. Emulate salmons by following and scented path, and construct a map of the "river" as you head "upstream."