Arizona Science Center
600 East Washington Street
Phoenix, AZ 85004-2394
www.azscience.org

Arizona Science Center celebrated Sense of Smell Day for the entire weekend, with approximately 1,000 guests attending activities on Saturday and Sunday. With a wide range of activities for guests of all ages, Arizona Science Center had added another successful Sense of Smell Day to their record.

Is the Nose Better than the Eye
This activity demonstrated that sight is not the sense that has the strongest memory recall, but rather it’s the sense of smell. Visitors glanced at a tray full of items and then looked away and tried to recall as many as they could. They were then given the same items and asked to smell them, then turn away and recite what they had smelled. An ongoing tally was kept throughout the day, making the nose the victor.

Smelling Clean
Visitors loved making their own soap to take home with them, using un-soaplike scents such as, garlic, chocolate and fresh cut hay. This resulting unusual and unique soaps demonstrated that in our culture cleanliness is usually associated with certain smells like citrus and almond, not grass, desserts or even garlic.

“Call that Bluff ” Game Show
Guests participated in a game show that challenged the audience to figure out which of two “smell experts” were bluffing, when asked questions about the sense of smell. Audience members voted while watching the interactive digital effects that covered the dome of the planetarium.

Other activities included:

Odor Eaters Rotten Sneaker Contest™: A panel of five judges rated the condition of the sneakers of local contestants.Elizabeth Dispoto, age 12 from Yuma, AZ will represent Arizona in the national contest in Vermont in March.

Smells of the Old Southwest: The curator of the Stinson Museum in Snowflake, AZ presented a beautiful display of herbs, spices and plates that the Pre-Colombian settlers of the old west, the Native Americans, Mexicans and Mormon pioneers would have used.

Search, Track and Rescue Dogs: Inter-active demonstrations by dog handlers and their charges mimicked real search and rescue missions, showing guests how dogs use their excellent sense of smell to track criminals and find missing people.

Dr. Stink: Dr. Stink, founder of “Odorzout”, an all-natural odor-reducing compound, was present to demonstrate and explain his product. Museum visitors got to test it to see if it really worked.

Who’s Nose is it Anyway?: The younger visitors compared the many fun shapes and sizes of different animal noses to their own while learning how animals use their sense of smell.