 your results
Sent in by:
Whitney of Grain Valley, MO
Map out the uncharted territory...of your tongue!
- cotton swabs
- water
- small cups or glasses
- unsweetened baking cocoa
- lemon juice
- salt
- honey
- pens and paper for charting
- Before you begin, ask a grown-up if it's okay to use different sweet, salty, sour and bitter foods for mapping where your tongue tastes what.
- Ask a friend to help. One of you will be the taster and the other will be the tester. When the first person is done tasting, you can switch so both of you will get a chance to taste.
- Put a little bit of each substance in a cup. Mix the non-liquids with some water so that all the substances have about the same consistency.
- Draw a chart for recording your results. Along the left side of the paper write each of the foods you will test in a separate row. The ZOOMers used unsweetened baking cocoa and water to test bitter, lemon juice to test sour, honey to test sweet, and saltwater to test salty. Across the top draw three columns for each taster. Label each with the taster's name and "front," "back," and "side."
- Make some predictions. Do you think different places on your tongue will taste different flavors more intensely? Where on your tongue do you think each flavor will taste strongest? Will some flavors be easier or harder to taste than others?
- Have the tester dip a cotton swab into one of the liquids and dab it either on the front, back or side of the taster's tongue.
- The taster tastes the liquid, then takes a sip of water. This helps clear your tongue of the taste so it doesn't interfere with the next part of the experiment.
- The tester then dips a new cotton swab in the same liquid and dabs it on a different part of the taster's tongue. The taster tastes the liquid again and sips some water. Now, try it again on the third part of the taster's tongue.
- Once all the parts of the tongue have tasted the liquid, the taster says which part of his tongue tasted the liquid the strongest. The tester records the taster's answer on the chart.
- Follow the same process for each of the different liquids. Then switch who tastes and who tests and do the whole taste test again with the new taster.
- When all tasters have finished testing, talk about your results. Were your predictions correct? Did some of your results surprise you? Did both tasters taste the same things on the same parts of your tongues? Whatever you discover, be sure to send your results to ZOOM!
Ready for a taste of the sci scoop? Our tongues have four basic types of taste buds: sweet, sour, bitter, and salty. These taste buds are on different parts of our tongues. That's why you taste the different liquids on different parts of your tongue. Most people taste sweet on the tips of their tongues, bitter on the back, sour on the sides, and salty near the front and sides. Were your results a little bit different like ours were? Where do you think you would taste something that's both sweet and sour, like sweet-n-sour sauce? How about something that's salty and sour, like pickle juice?
Anna, age 7 of Chandler, AZ wrote:
I tasted sweet, salty and bitter in the back. On the right, I tasted salty and sour. On the left, salty. On the tip I tasted sweet and salty. Salty is everywhere! Maybe my water was too salty.
Justin, age 11 of North Babylon, NY wrote:
it was a great project for my sixth grade science experiment but I suggest using more people
ZOOM Fan, age 11 of Bountiful, UT wrote:
Instead of trying it with honey, I tried it with a smoothie, and I found that everything was the back, except for the front, which was sweet
Sophia, age 8 of OR wrote:
when I did it I figured out that on the tip of my tongue I can taste sour and salty and on my right side of my tongue tastes sweet and my left side tastes bitter i had a great time!
Kc of MN wrote:
Our results were alot different than we thought. 59 taste testers thought that they could taste better at the back of the tongue. 46 taste testers said they could taste less on the side of the tongue. Most yummy flavor was lemon and most yucky flavor was cocoa. We had a great time.
Ashley, age 13 of PA wrote:
tongue map was a great idea 4 my science project and my results werent the same as yours most tasted bitter and salty on the back and sour in the front and sweet on the side... thx 4 the great idea
Kelsey, age 15 of Loris, SC wrote:
my results were that my testers tasted all flavors all over the tongue!
Ali, age 10 of Naples wrote:
l dindint taste any thing either with honey
Erin of Phoenix, AZ wrote:
My 3 children and I did the experiment. The children basically thought that everything was stronger in the back except for one child thought the Lemon was stronger in the front. I thought the Lemon was stronger in the Back, Salt on the Side and Honey on the Front.
Zara, age 11 of Shoreline, WA wrote:
I got salty on back, side was sour and sweet, and bitter was and the front.
Laura, age 14 of Prairieville, LA wrote:
Back - salt Front tips - bitter Sides - sweet Tip - sour
Ann, age 13 of Hong Kong wrote:
Bitter-Back Sweet-Right Sour-Left Salty-Front
Stella, age 8 of Melbourne wrote:
Me and my parents tried it. I had honey(sweet) in the middle, I had vinegar(sour) on the left, and salt(salty)on the right.
Catlin, age 11 of Coeur D'Alene, ID wrote:
We (my younger brother, mom, and younger sister) all had different sweet, bitter, salty, and bitter areas on out tongue!!! We all had fun though, even though had to taste lemon juice.
Kailyn, age 10 wrote:
Me and my brother tried it and we used mustard, sugar, salt, and cocoa. My brother had mustard (sour) on the back, sugar (sweet) on the side, salt (salty) on the side, and cocoa (bitter) on the back. All of mine tasted the strongest on the back of my tongue. Pretty cool!
Angel, age 11 of Dayton, OH wrote:
When I did it, I found out that all my spots on my tounge can taste sweet, sour, and salty, but not bitter.
Reagan, age 11 of Waco, TX wrote:
I got salty on the front, sour on the near front side, sweet on the back side, again sour on the back, and bitter (weirdly!) on the other back side!! I have a really wierd tongue!!
Anthony, age 8 of Rosemead, CA wrote:
Well, I don't have unsweeted coacoa so I used the white part of the lemon zest dipped in water and I tried sweet at my tip of my tongue, bitter on the back, sour at the side, and salt near the side and the sweetness.
Christian, age 11 of Cassville, WV wrote:
When I did it the sweet was on the tip of my tongue, the salt on the left side, the sour on the right side and as you can tell the bitter on the back of my tongue. So that is the map of my tongue.
Kiera, age 10 of Alameda, CA wrote:
For sweet it was in the back, so was sour, bitter was on the side and salty was on the front.
Athena, age 11 of Bastrop wrote:
Well sour was on the tip and sweet was in the middle. And it was sort of bitter on the sides!
Daniel, age 10 of Holliston, MA wrote:
Front is sour and bitter, sides are salty, and middle is sweet.
Stephie, age 7 of Holliston, MA wrote:
All of them were on the front except bitter. It was on the sides. I have a weird tognue.
Katie, age 8 of Holliston, MA wrote:
Sweet and salty were in the front and on the sides. Sour was only on the sides. I didn't do bitter because it looked too gross.
Connor, age 8 of Dracut, MA wrote:
I tried a combination of tastes, Sour+Sweet=Front, Salty+Sour=Front, Sweet+Salty=Sides. Me and my mom tried this, and we enjoyed it.
Shelby, age 10 of Virginia Beach, VA wrote:
Sour-back; bitter-side; salty-sides; sweet-tip.
Donna, age 13 of Shanghai, China wrote:
I did this experiment with my little sister(who loved it). These are our results: Donna= Amanda= Sweet- front Sweet- front Sour- front Sour-back Bitter- scattered Bitter- middle sides (but weaker in Salty- back the middle) Salty- back
Gigi, age 14 of Hong Kong wrote:
Bitter --tip, Salt-- sides( near the tip), Sweet-- sides ( near to the throat), sour--the bottom. actually, I can taste all 4 tastes all over my tongue.
Agnes, age 14 of Hong Kong wrote:
I feel sweet on the tip of my tongue, Sour back of my tongue, Bitter back of my tongue, and Salty side of my tongue.
Annie, age 13 of Hong Kong wrote:
The result really surprises me. It's totally different from the tongue map. I get sour at the tip of my tongue; sweet at the back; sour and salty on the sides.
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