Science Fair

Science FairBy: Tori Buckley

Question: Do people of different ages have a different

sense of smell?

Why did I pick this question? I picked this question because has people get

older they loose their hearing and their eyesight so I was wondering if they also lost their sense of smell.

Hypothesis I think older people will have a harder time

trying to see what they are smelling because you loose more senses has you get older.

Explanation of my hypothesis I think that older people will have a harder

time because of ageing and younger people are more new.

Interesting facts from research The ability to smell and taste breaks down with age. 3 year olds have essentially the same likes and

dislikes as adults in smell. Women can tell the difference in smell better than

men Women are significantly more likely than men to

suffer from cacosmia ( feeling ill from the smell of common environmental chemicals such as paint and perfume.)

The little hairs in your nose are called cilia. To know what you are smelling there is a thing

called the olfactory bulb there the smells are recognized because each smell molecule fits into a nerve cell like a lock and key.

Material List Plastic cups Blindfold Strawberry jam Peanut butter Onions Peaches Dog food Hershey's chocolate syrup Pens Papers

Procedure Put one of each food in four cups Blindfold person Have blindfolded person smell the food and

guess what the food is. Record answers Repeat steps 1-4 until all foods are used Share if they have the right answers Repeat all steps until all variables have

smelled each food Record data Find conclusion

Variables Grandma Joan age 67 Ashley age 46 Caley age 17 Savannah age 10

Observations from experiments People all got most/all the answers right. The easiest thing to guess was Peanut butter The hardest thing to guess what the

strawberry jam

Data Grandma: Guessed all correct except

strawberry jam she guessed grape jelly Ashley: Guessed all of them correctly Caley: Guessed all of them correctly Savannah: Guessed all of them correctly

except onions she didn’t know.

Analysis My analysis was that it did test my

hypothesis because I thought I was right but I was not because my oldest variable got most of them right

Conclusion My hypothesis are wrong because my

grandmother got all of them right except one and she was very close. My questions now are: How come other senses go bad but sense of smell stays the same?

Resources www.sageke.sciencemag.org www.nidcid.nih.gov www.sirc.org www.library.think.org www.timescom