Taste buds & Tasting

We did this simple experiment with our friends to investigate the sense of taste.
Put different liquids in separate cups, lemon juice (bitter), salty water (salt), sugary water (sweet) and strong black coffee (bitter).

First we all drew a tongue map. Then we tested each sample. Without knowing which was which, the children dipped a cotton bud into the liquids in turn and dabbed them onto each area of the tongue in turn, taking care not to sweep across the tongue.

Some scientists believe that your tongue and brain work together to recognise certain tastes on different areas of the tongue. There is evidence that you can taste:

Bitter things at the back of your tongue.
Sweet at the front
Sour at the sides
Salty at the tip.

But some scientists have a different hypothesis, they believe you can taste all the flavours, bitter, sweet, sour, salty all over your tongue.
Which is the conclusion we came to, too!

Why not try this and tell us your results, our researchers are waiting for your data!