5. MATERIALS
Blindfold
Noseclip or if possible, use fingers
ITALY
FOODS:
EXPERIMENT 1
a) Piece of carrot
b) Crackers
EXPERIMENT 2
Piece of chocolate
BELGIUM
FOODS:
They have used for all of the
experiments a chocolate bar
6. DESCRIPTION OF THE
EXPERIMENT
1) a)Put on a blindfold and a nose clip. Another pupil will give you
some chocolat to eat. Try to guess what you’re eating. Don’t
swallow it!
b) Now remove the nose clip and try to guess again.
2) Put on a blindfold. Another pupil will give you some chocolat to
eat. Try to guess what you’re eating while you’re smelling an
onion.
7. BELGIAN BOYS’ RESULTS
Experiment 1
a) You can taste it ,but not clearly.
b) You can taste it better.
Experiment 2
After some time it is clear it is clear but you smell a lot
of onion.
8. ITALIAN GIRLS’ RESULTS
EXPERIMENT 1
a) In the first case Martina didn’t guess what she was eating
because she said it was celery but it was a piece of carrot
b) In the second case Martina said it was a cracker so she guessed it
EXPERIMENT 2
In this case Martina guessed that she was eating a piece of chocolate,
but the smell of the onion changed the flavour of the food
9. COMPARISON BETWEEN THE
EXPERIMENTS
For what concern the food we used, we can say that they are a little bit different because the
Belgium guys did the experiment with the chocolate only. Instead, the Italian girls used the carrot
and crackers for the first experiment and the chocolate for the last experiment.
In the first case, Martina and Tobie recognized the food that they had eaten even if it wasn’t clear
because of the blindfold and the fingers on the nose.
In the second case, Martina and Tobie didn’t put their fingers on the nose and when they had to
identify the food, they guessed it more easily because they could smell it.
In conclusion, in the last experiment both the guys, even though the strong smell of the onion,
succeeded in recognizing the piece of chocolate.
10. REFLECTION
BELGIUM
We didn’t expect these results.
We thought that there wouldn’t have
been a change
ITALY
We didn’t expect this answer because
we didn’t know that in space, cause of
the lack of gravity, there’s a fluid
shift in the body. Blood and others fluids
In the body are spread less equally.
11. THEORY BEHIND THE EXPERIMENT
In the space the redistribution of the fluids is different from the
earth, in fact it can cause a nasal congestion and modify
astronauts’ taste. In orbit the taste is reduced because of the
movement of fluids in the body. They aren’t attracted to the
bottom and in this way they push on the nasal mucosa
weakening the smell. For this reason the smell, that is linked to
the taste changed the flavour of foods. For example, the
astrounats eat more spicy food than they do on earth because
in the space station there are a lot of smells and the smell of
the food isn’t strong enough to predominate all those smells.
So the foos tastes less.
