Jelly Bean Experiment

Students eat jelly beans with their (a) eyes and noses closed, (b) just eyes closed, and (c) with all their senses available

Materials

• Jelly beans. It's best to use basic flavored jelly beans (e.g., cherry, grape, lemon, orange)
• Sheet of paper to write guesses
• Pen or pencil

Directions

• Each participant will be given 3 jelly beans of the same flavor (very important!). One person (a parent or teacher) should organize 3 jelly beans per person and keep the flavors hidden from the participants. 
• Jelly Bean #1
  • Participants need to plug their nose and close their eyes. It is important that they keep their nose plugged until after they have swallowed the jelly bean completely.
  • Give each participant a jelly bean
  • Have each participant guess what flavor they had and write it down
• Jelly Bean #2 
  • Don't forget - same flavor as #1!
  • Participants need to only close their eyes 
  • Give each participant a jelly bean
  • Have each participant guess what flavor they had and write it down
• Jelly Bean #3
  • Don't forget - same flavor as #1 and #2!
  • Participants get all their senses! Eyes and noses open
  • Give each participant a jelly bean
  • Have each participant guess what flavor they had and write it down

Discussion Questions

• Were all your guesses the same? If not, how and why did they differ?
• Which jelly bean (1, 2, or 3) was hardest to guess? Easiest? What do you think causes these differences?

Discussion Points

• A lot of perception is from multiple sensory inputs. Vision would give clues via color, and smell is a large component of taste (think about when you are congested with a cold and food tastes more bland)
• Without all the sensory input, single senses are less accurate and can mislead you.