1 box of Baker's unsweetened chocolate
1 package of Sour Patch Kids
granualated sugar
salt
Dixie cups
Concept/Procedure: Have the students learn the four tast sensations- bitter, sour, sweet, and salty. Have them eat unsweetened chocolate for bitter, sour patch kids for sour, sugar for sweet, and salt for salty.
Extension: Have them do the sample again, but this time plug their nose to learn how sense of smell is closely connected to our sense of taste.
Application to the Real World: Our sense of taste provides us with the ability to detect flavor. Bitterness is the most sensitive of tastes, it is often viewed as unpleasant and sharp. Sourness it the taste detecting acidity. Sweetness is the taste detecting sugar and is often viewed as pleasureable. Salty is the taste detecting the presence of sodium. In the 2000s, the fifth taste sensation of savory has been advised by many authorities within this field. Savoriness is the taste sensation produced by amino acides. It is described as having a "rich" taste. The Chinese Five Elements Philosophy lists the five basic tastes as bitter, salty, sour, sweet and spicy. Japenese culture also adds a sixth taste to the basic five.
