Third Grade
Worksheets
What Does Your Nose Know?
I love the smell of freshly baked brownies. Smelling them always makes me hungry. I also love the smell of flowers. Smelling them in a garden always makes me happy. I do not, though, like the smell of dirty socks. Getting a whiff of stinky socks makes me feel sick! How does our nose know what different things smell like? How does our sense of smell work?
Every day you smell many things. Some scents, like flowers, are pleasant. Some, like dirty socks, are putrid! But all are odors none-the-less. Before you smell something, several things happen. First, you take a breath. The breath of air contains tiny molecules of odor chemicals. These molecules travel up through your nose. They float up to the ceiling of your nasal cavity. Then, these teeny molecules start to land on special nerve cells. Your nose has millions of nerve cells! But each odor molecule is on a mission to find the cell that is its perfect match. This is kind of like finding the right key to unlock .....
