Taste Buds Lesson Plan: Identifying Tastes

Subject/Grade: Science Integrated with Literature - 5th Grade Unit/Lesson Topic: "Sugaring Time" Story by Kathryn Lasky, Tongue - Taste BudsTime Limit: 45 minutes

Objective(s): TLW identify taste areas on the tongue. TLW classify various foods according to the different areas of taste.

Assessment: Observation and collection of tongue maps. Collection of homework.

Materials: overhead projector, transparencies of tongue map and taste definitions, copies of tongue map for each student, poster of five senses, 6 small trays, paper cups - one for each student plus four for each group, labels for each of the 4 cups in each group, bottled water, papertowels, cotton swabs - 4 per student, sugar, lemon juice, salt, tonic water, 4 plastic spoons, measuring cup and tablespoon, 4 taste classification chart w/ pictures of various foods to classify, directions sheet, paper tongues for homework, tape, stickers

Set/Motivation: "In your story for this week, you are learning about something 'sweet'. Who can tell me what it is?" Allow student responses. "That's right. In the story, we are reading about syrup and how it is made. Well, did you know that only a certain part of your tongue can taste something that is sweet? That's right. Your tongue has about 9,000 taste buds, which can detect only 4 different tastes - salty, sweet, bitter, and sour. We don't taste everything all over our tongues; instead, we taste specific things on specific areas. Today, we will experiment with different substances to discover where those sections are located on our tongue."

Teaching Procedures: Introduce 4 different tastes using transparency. Distribute tongue maps and display transparency. Explain directions and proper procedures to students for taste test. Monitor students during experiment. Following experiment, ask students to identify areas on tongue, use transparency. Then have volunteers from each group to classify various foods according to taste. Explain homework.