Minnesota Children’s Museum
10 West Seventh Street
St. Paul. MN 55102
www.mcm.org

The Minnesota Children’s Museum welcomed over 1,000 children and adults to its celebration of Sense of Smell Day. With a variety of events taking place throughout the day that were both informative and entertaining, guests were able to get a true understanding and appreciation of all aspects of their sense of smell.

Nose Jobs
A Naturalist from The Carpenter’s Nature Center in Hastings, MN brought a snake, a short-tailed opossum and a rabbit. He discussed how each animal uses its sense of smell differently to survive and to communicate. He also explained how the Center keeps insect pests away from their apple orchard by using natural scents instead of spraying pesticides.

Smell/Taste Test
By participating in a jellybean taste test, visitors learned about the link between taste and smell. Most everyone who took the test was surprised that so much of the flavor disappears when you can’t use your nose. Volunteers took this opportunity to explain the link between smell and taste.

Nose Quiz
Visitors matched aromas hidden in film canisters to the actual objects that were the source of the aromas. They tried to identify the difference between black pepper, chili pepper, flowers, lemon and garlic powder. Visitors were then encouraged to discuss their favorite smells and explain why they liked them.

Other activities included:
Vision Test: To demonstrate how visual perception and odor perception are integrated, visitors were challenged to smell two liquids that looked identical, but smelled different and talk about their perceptions.

Aroma Art: Attendees created fragrance art masterpieces with paints that were scented with lemon, peppermint, coconut and vanilla extracts. Many were surprised how the smell of the paint dictated what they painted.

Nasal Passage-Gateway to Bliss: A local puppeteer thrilled the audience with tales of Jack the dog who loves to use his sense of smell.

Story Time: Storytellers told stories about good smelling foods and fragrances. The audience was involved in the story every step of the way by participating in actions, and identifying pictures and situations.