Science in the Park - Sniffing Science

This week we are having some fun with out sense of smell!

Experiment 1: Smelling Cards

How to:

• Hot glue a cotton ball onto an index card.
• Add a scent to each card. We added: vanilla extract, almond extract, orange juice (squeezed from an orange), cloves, cinnamon, and garlic powder.
• We passed around the bottle/jars with the scents in them so that the kids could see if they could match the scent in the cup to the scent on the index card.

Experiment 2: Balloon Sniffing

This experiment demonstrates the ability for olfactory (smell) particles to pass through the rubber that makes up a balloon.

How To:
Demo how cool it is that you can smell through a balloon. Take a candle that has a glass lid (like a Yankee candle or the cheaper version). Ask the kids to smell the candle with the lid on (can't smell much) - then take the lid off - and then you can smell the candle! Now - take a balloon with a scent inside (I added a little bit of vanilla) and show how you can smell the scent right through the balloon. Point out how you could not smell through the glass but you could through the balloon!

Experiment 3: Scratch and Sniff Pictures

Scratch and Sniff is an example of micro-encapsulation. This is when tiny olfactory (smell) particles are encapsulated by another material and the other material has to be disturbed to allow the smell particles to escape for you to smell them.

How to:

• Mix a kool-aid packet with some water to form the consistency of a paint. Mix at about a 1 to 1 ratio (so 1 tsp of kool-aid and 1 tsp of water).
• Paint a picture using the kool-aid paint.
• Wait for it to dry.
• Then scratch and sniff! Very cool!

Enjoy!