The Discovery Museum and Planetarium
4450 Park Avenue
Bridgeport, CT 06604
www.discoverymuseum.org

As well as celebrating Sense of Smell Day on April 30th at the museum, The Discovery Museum and Planetarium staff also created a special Sense of Smell exhibit for the Connecticut Public Television Family Science Expo. The combined events drew over 15,000 people who got to learn about their sense of smell.

Scented Lotion Laboratory: This very popular activity gave visitors the chance to create their own fragranced hand lotion. They could choose from eleven different fragrances and essential oils to make their personalized lotion. Museum staff asked the visitors to rate their creations and report on which scent combinations they found particularly pleasing. Many guests even made a brand name for their new product and took them home to enjoy.

Olfactory Mystery Gallery: A three part activity that was comprised of an Introduction, where guests were provided an overview of the mystery to be solved, Detective Training Academy, where they learned about the science of smell from various displays as well as testing their sense of smell in a scent matching activity. Finally they moved on to the Evidence Area where they attempted to solve the mystery “The Case of the Unknown Stink” using odor samples, venting schedules, weather data and odor reports.

Other activities included:
Smelly Story Hour: Visitors got to sniff along while they were read “Little Bunny Follows His Nose.”

Body Odor Identification Quiz: Challenged guests to match various unpleasant body odors with the bacteria largely responsible for creating them. It was a very popular activity with the young boys.