In this activity, learners work in teams to study the observation skills essential to scientific research. Learners work in groups and lead one blindfolded member of the group to a tree and other various places nearby. The blindfolded team member describes what he/she smells, feels, and hears while the other members take notes. Learners switch roles and at the end, compare their observations and analyze their observational skills.

In the first part of the activity, each student chews a piece of gum until it loses its sweetness, and then leaves the gum to dry for several days before weighing it to determine the amount of mass lost. This mass corresponds to the amount of sugar in the gum, and can be compared to the amount stated on the package label. In the second part of the activity, students work in groups to design and conduct new experiments based on questions of their own choosing. These questions arise naturally from observations during the first experiment, and from students' own experiences with and knowledge of the many varieties of chewing and bubble gums available.

This video resource was developed by Neuroscience students of Wake Forest University.  This video is designed for elementary students. It describes the relationship between smell and taste.

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 the attempts, students hold their noses and close their eyes, while for others they only close their eyes. After they have conducted the experiment, they create bar graphs showing the number of correct and incorrect identifications for the two different experimental conditions tested.