Curated OER
Scent-Inspired Composition
Our sense of smell has a wonderful way of bringing back memories. Unlock those memories with an olfactory-inspired writing prompt that challenges writers to tell a story about a specific smell and the memories it conjures.
Curated OER
Follow the Scent
Students explore animal characteristics by participating in a hunting activity. In this smells lesson, students discuss how animals track each other through a keen sense of smell and how humans rarely do the same. Students utilize...
National Park Service
Leave it to Beavers
Many people know cats mark their territories by rubbing the back of their necks to leave a scent, but not many people know beavers also leave a scent to mark their territories. During the first activity of two, scholars use their noses...
Curated OER
Scents And Sense-Abilities
Students explore how the five human senses function. They work in small groups, each group focusing on a specific sense. Each group then creates a 'Sensing the World' poster which combines all of the information gained through in-class...
Curated OER
Salmon Homing Instincts
Young scholars study the conditions of salmon imprinting as the fish returns to spawn in its native waters. Scented cards are used to mimic the imprinting process as the student fishes search for and identify obstacles to reaching their...
Rainforest Alliance
Stop and Smell the Flowers
It's a bird! It's a bee! Actually, it's your learners flying from flower to flower smelling their scents! Using paper flowers and essential oils, pupils flutter between flowers to use their sense of smell to experience how animals use...
CK-12 Foundation
Fish vs. Rose
Examine the science behind rates of diffusion. The video lesson and following interactive activity focus on the molecular components of different smells. Learners monitor the diffusion of each smell as they 'race' through a room.
Curated OER
Explore: Third Grade Scents
Students use the olfactory sense to determine if a marker is appropriate 'food' or not. This experience helps students explain why so many animals rely on the sense of smell to find prey.
Education Outside
Leaf Adaptations
Long life or a fast life cycle? Class members each gather a leaf, observe its characteristics such as texture, surface, scent, design, shading, and size and then discuss the adaptations made for survival as well as what the leaf reveals...
Biology in Motion
Urine Concentration in 3 Easy Steps
The color, density, and smell of urine all relate to kidney function. Pupils observe the kidney controlling the concentration of water through three different steps. It mentions how each function might change the appearance and scent of...
Coastal Carolina University
Osmosis and Diffusion Lab: Honey I Blew Up the Bear
Beginning biologists explore passive transport through two demonstrations and a hands-on inquiry. Spray air freshener from one spot in the classroom and have class members raise their hands as the scent reaches them. Also, place a teabag...
Curated OER
The Peppermint Beetle
Learners describe various ways insects use their sense of smell, and examine why some insects use scent marking. They conduct a scent hunt, searching for a particular scent on the trees on school grounds.
Curated OER
Diffusion Through Balloons
Students observe the diffusion of air molecules through a balloon. In this chemistry and molecules instructional activity, students fill balloons with air and a scented substance and observe whether the scented air is able to permeate...
Curated OER
What is That Smell?
Students identify various scents by using their sense of smell. In this five senses activity, students smell items such as popcorn, mint, and lemon and identify the scents by only using their sense of smell.
Curated OER
Bat Ecology
Students, through hands on games and activities, discover how bats live and how bats benefit ecosystems. They play a game designed to show them how echolocation works and another to show how mother bats locate their young through their...
Curated OER
Parents and Babies
Students examine different scents. In this science lesson, students are divided into being parents or babies and are each given a scent. The "parents" have to identify or infer the scent of their "baby" showing that every mammal has a...
Alabama Learning Exchange
Have You Seen My Mother?
Students listen to a read aloud of Janell Cannon's, Stellaluna as they examine how bats use their sense of smell. They examine the sense of smell by role playing as mother bats as identify different scents. They study bat facts at an...
Curated OER
Strange New Planet
Students choose a spherical object to decorate with stickers, scents, etc to make it interesting. They write a key to the features for future explorers. Students use viewers to observe mystery planets. Students simulate NASA missions by...
Curated OER
Ester Lab
In this ester learning exercise, students mix organic acids with alcohols to produced esters and identify the products by the chemical reaction and the scent given off after the reaction occurs.
Curated OER
Scented Cool Whip Painting
Students practice their writing skills by "painting" pictures and writing letters in Cool Whip on paper.
Curated OER
Farm Animals - Mothers and Babies - "Are You My Baby?"
Students listen to a teacher read aloud and discuss the farm animals. They participate in an role playing activity that explains how mother mammals recognize their young by their scent.
Curated OER
Salmon Homing Instincts
Students role-play salmon returning to original streams using their sense of smell like the salmon do. They smell cinnamon, vanilla and peppermint on cards and follow that scent to locations in the classroom that represent their original...
Curated OER
Lesson Plan Five: Sense of Smell and The Nose
Students identify five different fruits by using their sense of smell, and then draw a picture of the fruit; students create their own picture, and add spices for scent.
University of Minnesota
Neuropathfinding: Kinesthetic Model
Playing follow the leader has never been so interesting! Get the class up and moving while they take on the roles of nervous system components. Through trial and error, they learn the importance of the "pioneer" growth cone that leads...