Summary Mix some plant smells to design your own perfume Science content Biology: Sensing, Organ Systems (4, 5, 6) Chemistry: Physical Changes, Solutions, Mixtures and Separating (2, 4, 5, 6) Lessons activity is in Smells Materials smelly plants e.g. lavender, mint and fruit peels, either collected by the teachers, or picked by students from a garden mortar and pestle water in a squeeze or dropper bottle optional: ½ or ¼ teaspoon measure pipette small tubes or vials, with optional necklace string Procedure Smell the fragrant leaves, flower petals and fruit peels. Choose two or three that you like best. Pick out one leaf, petal or piece of peel from each of your chosen plants. Tear the leaves/petals/peel into small pieces and put them in the mortar. Add one spoonful of water. Grind with the pestle - push down while you grind in a circle. Grind until the plants are completely mashed up. Suck up the perfume with a dropper. Put the perfume in a small tube to take home. Think up a fancy name for your perfume. (Your perfume will smell nice for just a day or two, so use it soon!) What’s going on? You used water to extract the fragrant chemicals from the plants. Professional perfume makers also extract fragrant chemicals from plants using water, or other solvents. Then they mix different fragrances to design new perfumes. Attached documents perfume_graphics_for_van_dusen.pdf perfume_take_home_sheet.pdf Grades taught Gr K Gr 1 Gr 2 Gr 3 Gr 4 Gr 5
