Education:Science Projects: All In Good Taste
Count the tastebuds on the tip of your tongue to see if you're a Supertaster!
How many of you hate broccoli? Has your mother or father ever said to you, "No dessert until you eat all your veggies!!!"? Yuk!!! Sometimes you have to decide which is better, skipping your veggies or getting dessert.
Well, taste is an important sense. Here is an experiment you can do to show your parents just why you don't like certain vegetables, like broccoli, or cabbage, or cauliflower, or especially BRUSSELS SPROUTS!!!
First let me say to the parents out there reading this experiment: Dr. Zoolittle LOVES all the above mentioned veggies. If Brussels sprouts came in ice cream, he would be sure to order it. Broccoli chocolate sounds super tasty to him. Does anyone know how to make cabbage pudding? YUMMY!!!
Before we do this experiment, here is some research for you:
1) Which animal tastes with its feet? (Here is a clue: it starts life as a caterpillar.)
2) Which animal has taste buds in its stomach? (Clue: this animal eats its food very fast and will later enjoy the taste in its stomach. There is a very popular saying: Don't _________ down your food.)
3) Which animal can taste with its skin? (Hint: it will brush past you just to see what you taste like. Watch out when you go swimming!)
Now here is the experiment. Remember: always do an experiment with an adult present. Be safe and NEVER do anything that seems dangerous.
What you need
• Blue food coloring
• Cotton swab
• Piece of paper
• Hole punch (the standard 1/4-inch size, like for your three-ring binder)
• Mirror
What you do
1. Punch a hole in a piece of paper.
2. Take the cotton swab and dip it into the food coloring.
3. Wipe the swab with the food coloring on the tip of your tongue.
4. Put your blue tongue through the hole in the paper.
5. Look in the mirror.
6. Count the round structures on your tongue that appear in the paper hole.
7. Write down your results.
Conclusion
If you have 25 or more round structures on your tongue, you are considered a SUPERTASTER and would probably hate broccoli and cabbage and cauliflower and especially BRUSSELS SPROUTS!!!! YUK!!!
If you have less than 25, you are like Dr. Zoolittle, an ordinary taster who loves all of those veggies.
When you are done, go to your brother/sister/neighbor and say: I am feeling really blue... open your mouth and ask them: See anything unusual in there? I bet they will!
Catch Dr. Zoolittle in an entertaining show in the San Diego Zoo's Children's Zoo daily during the summer and every weekend and school holiday.
