The Activity
Arrange students into teams. Appoint a team captain for each team. Have the team captain label a paper from 1 to 10. Explain to students that they must use their senses to discover what is inside the cups. Explain that they will receive one point for each correct answer. The team with the most points wins.

Place one of the ten containers/substances in the cardboard box. Call up one student from each team. Give that student the option of tasting, smelling, seeing, or feeling the substance.

Notes

The team captain records what the team assumes the substance to be. (For example: the student might report “feeling a gooey substance.” As a result, the team might discuss possibilities including jelly, honey, Jell-O… and record what they think it might have been.) If the students are not sure and cannot guess what the substance is, you might give the team the option of using the same substance for the next round. Obviously, they will choose a different student and a different sense the second time around. By using a combination of the two senses, they might be able to narrow down the possibilities and discover what is in the cup. Of course, if a team chooses to do this, they forfeit their chance of moving to the next substance while the other team(s) may choose to move on.

Continue calling up one student from each team and giving him/her a chance to see, smell, taste, or feel the substance in the next cup. Once again, the “sense-er” will share her/his observations with the other members of their team’ and record the team’s guess.

When students have had ten opportunities to “sense” what is in a cup, the team captains can share their guesses for each cup. The team that got the most correct guesses wins.

Assessment

Discuss with students how dependent they are on each of their senses. Ask them to share instances where seeing (or smelling, or tasting…) was not enough to discover what some substances were.

Talk about the substances for which feeling, smelling, or seeing was not enough. For example, without the sense of taste, Dr. Pepper could have been mistaken for Coke; without the sense of smell, vinegar could be mistaken as water…

Have students share in writing some different ways in which hearing, seeing, smelling, and touch can help keep them out of danger. Make sure they give clear examples for each. For example: you might see mold on old foods, which helps you steer clear of eating things that might make you sick; or smelling burning wood or rubber might help warn you of fire…

Discuss the repercussions and dangers of living without one of the five senses.

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Education World®
Copyright © 2007 Education World

03/22/2007