The NASA SCIence Files™
What's That Smell?
Purpose: To learn about your sense of smell

Materials

Procedure
  1. Place a few drops of a scent on two cotton balls.
  2. Place each cotton ball in a film canister and replace the lid.
  3. Using the permanent marker on the top of both lids, label them both canister "A." The other canisters will be labeled in pairs as "B," "C," "D," and "E."
  4. Write the scent in the control chart.
  5. Repeat Steps 1-4 with the other four canisters, putting a different scent for each pair.
  6. Now you are ready to test your partners.
  7. Have all partners waft the smell in canister A toward their noses. To waft, hold the container a short distance from your nose and using your other hand, wave the smell towards yourself. You never want to directly smell an unknown substance.
  8. Partners will then try to guess the smell.
  9. They will write their guesses on the data sheets.
  10. Compare the correct answers to each partner's responses.
  11. Blindfold your partners.
  12. Choose one of the scents and let each partner waft it towards himself/herself.
  13. Let partners smell the other scents until they find the matching scent.
  14. Repeat until all scents are matched.
  15. Take the blindfold off and let your partners see if they were correct!
  16. Now it is your turn. Repeat the second part of the experiment, steps 11-15.
Scent Control Chart
Canister A Canister B Canister C Canister D Canister E




















Write your guess for each canister in the appropriate blank.

Student Data Chart
Canister A Canister B Canister C Canister D Canister E




















Conclusion

  1. Which smell was the easiest to match?
  2. Which smell was the most difficult to match?
  3. Why do you think some smells were easy and some were more difficult?
  4. How was your sense of smell affected while blindfolded?