Too Much Salt Nina and the Neurons

# If you've got a question And you don't know where to go

# Ask Nina for some help Cos she's got a science show

# She makes sense of our senses By helping her fans

# By doing her experiments With potions and with bangs. #

Touch your tongue!

Fingers!

Eyes! Ears! Nose!

# Every day we use our senses

# Wherever we may go. #

Tongue.

Fingers.

Eyes. Ears

Nose.

# Nina and the Neurons Find out what you need to know

# Luke helps us with our eyes And Felix with our touch

# Ollie sniffs out smells Belle hears so much

# Bud is Ollie's brother He helps us with our taste

# They're Nina's Neurons And they're coming to your place. #

Touch your tongue!

Fingers!

Eyes! Ears!

Nose!

# Nina and the Neurons Find out what you need to know

# Oh, yeah! #

-ALL: Hello!

-Hello, everyone!

Do you know, I'm really hungry today and it's ages until lunchtime.

So I've decided to make myself a snack

and it's going to be my favourite.

Can you guess what it is?

Corn. That's right. I'm going to make popcorn.

I love popcorn for two reasons -

one because of its fantastic taste

and because you use all your senses when you make it.

Have you ever seen popcorn before it's cooked?

Look at this.

They're really small round balls and they feel hard to the touch.

Now let's get some into the machine.

That should be plenty.

In like that. Time to turn the machine on.

MACHINE WHIRRS

Now this is my favourite bit.

Listen really carefully cos we'll start to hear something soon.

NINA LAUGHS

The popping sound always makes me laugh.

If you look really closely you can see

the small balls of corn turning into the fluffy popcorn.

The smell's coming out as well. It reminds me of the the cinema.

MACHINE STOPS

I think it's ready.

What a great workout for all five senses.

I started with touching the corn before it went into the machine.

Then I heard it popping as it cooked.

Then I could see the small round balls change into fluffy popcorn.

Then we could smell the fabulous aroma of it cooking

and finally, we get to use our sense of taste

when we enjoy eating it.

Mmm.

-APPLAUSE

-Aw! Thank you. Thank you for coming

and I'll see you all again soon. Bye!

ALL: Bye.

BEEPING

Oh, I hear a beep, I see a flash I wonder what they're going to ask.

KEYPAD BEEPS

-Hi, Nina.

-Hi, Nina.

Hello. What's your question?

John wants to know...

..why does Uncle Bobby put so much salt in his soup?

Great question, John. You want to know

why your Uncle Bobby puts so much salt in his soup. I'll find out.

-Bye! See you soon.

-Bye! See you soon.

I think we'll need help to answer this.

And I know just who to ask.

OK, Neurons, time to get to work.

ALL: Neurons at the ready, Nina!

Today's question is - why does Uncle Bobby put so much salt in his soup?

Which Neuron can help us find the answer?

-ALL: Me! Me! Me! Me! Me!

-Me!

Will it be fabulous Felix?

I can help so very much if you need the sense of touch.

Will it be beautiful Belle?

I send messages brain to ear.

If there's a sound, I'll help you hear.

Will it be lovely Luke?

Looking and seeing, day or night,

I'll help you with your sense of sight.

Will it be awesome Ollie?

If it's pongy or whiffy or you can't tell,

my messages help your sense of smell.

Or Baby Bud?

Sour, salty, bitter or sweet,

I'm your taste buddy whenever you eat.

BEEPING

-It's Bud!

-Yippee!

-CHEERING

ALL: Go, Bud! Go, Bud!

Go, Bud! Go, Bud! Go, Bud!

Go, Bud!

-Go, Bud!

-Give me a taste of the action, Nina!

We're gonna investigate our tongues with taste experiments.

I think Bud is the perfect Neuron to help out.

OK, then.

Let's go!

Mmm? Let's start at the beginning.

Let me think...

Oh! That's it. We can start with our tongues!

-Hi, guys!

-ALL: Hi, Nina!

I'm helping John and Sarah answer their question -

why does Uncle Bobby use so much salt in his soup?

Would you like to help us out today?

-ALL: Yes!

-Brilliant. Well, follow me!

We're going to have a proper look at our tongues -

so stick your tongue out!

-Now tell me what you see.

-It's got white dots on it.

-Is it rough or is it bumpy?

-Bumpy.

-What's underneath like?

-Smooth!

-Smooth!

Oh, yes, the top is bumpy but underneath feels very different -

it's all smooth.

-Does anyone know why our tongues have those bumps?

-I don't know.

-Your taste buds live there. What are your taste buds for?

-Tasting.

-Yes!

And taste buds aren't just on our tongues.

You can also find them in your throat and inside your cheek.

-So who would like to play a game?

-ALL: Yes!

We're going to play a guessing game.

Here we have three different size jars of peas.

I want you to use your imagination and think they're taste buds.

The small jar has 100 taste buds in it.

The medium-size jar has 1,000 taste buds in it.

And the big jar has 10,000 taste buds in it.

If you have a look around the room,

you can see they're are pictures of the jars.

If you think the answer is 100 - run to the small jar.

If you think the answer is 1,000 - run to the medium-size jar.

If you think the answer is 10,000 - run to the picture of the big jar.

And the question - how many taste buds are we born with?

Three, two , one, go!

-Oh, so would you like me to tell you who the winners are?

-Yes, yes, yes!

Nobody won because the answer is 10,000 taste buds.

But, guys, I still don't know why Uncle Bobby

puts so much salt into his soup.

I think it's time for me to meet Uncle Bobby.

In the town of Paisley

lives John, his sister Sarah, Uncle, Dad and Mum.

Today for one day only they are...

..The Experimenters!

-Hi, everyone!

-ALL: Hi!

-Hello there, John!

-Hello!

So you want to know why Uncle Bobby uses so much salt in his soup?

I'm here to do some experiments to find the answer.

Bud is waiting to help us as well.

BEEPING

Ready, Bud?

It's my big moment! Standing by!

Ready to send lots of messages.

So for this experiment it's a tasty time of testing our taste buds.

That's a tongue twister, isn't it? Try saying that quickly.

Tasty time testing our taste buds! Testy time tasting...

THEY LAUGH Oh, what a tongue twister!

We've got four drinks in front of us.

I'd like you all to have a sip.

Would John like a taste?

-Well?

-Water.

-Water.

-Just water.

OK, now can you all close your eyes.

Nina wants them to ONLY use their taste buds.

If they can see they may use their eyes as well

and that'd ruin the experiment.

OK, everyone! You can have a taste of your water again.

-Tell us what you taste now.

-Oh, that's water.

-Sarah?

-It's orange.

-Dad?

-Water.

-Uncle Bobby?

-That's water.

Still water. OK, if you can close your eyes again for me, please.

SQUIRT!

Once again, open your eyes and have a drink.

-Mum, what does that taste of now?

-Orange juice?

-There's a tang of orange juice.

-Orange juice?

-Uncle Bobby, what can you taste?

-Still water.

Everyone has tasted the orange juice in the water except Uncle Bobby.

Why don't we all close our eyes again?

We'll just taste it one more time.

BUD LAUGHS

Nina's playing a trick on Uncle Bobby!

She's putting loads and loads of orange juice into the water

to see if he can taste it now.

Open your eyes and taste.

-Uncle Bobby, what can you taste now?

-I can taste...orange.

NEURONS: Hooray! He can taste it! He can taste it!

Finally, Uncle Bobby could taste it.

You guys tasted the orange juice with only a little in the water

but it took more for Uncle Bobby to taste it.

Remember I told you we're born with 10,000 taste buds,

well as we get older we start to lose them.

So Uncle Bobby may only have half the amount of taste buds Sarah does.

The question - why does Uncle Bobby put so much salt in his soup?

Mmm? I think we know the answer. We'll find out for sure at lunch.

Ah! Wow! A picnic!

What a great idea, Nina!

Ah, isn't this a perfect place for a picnic?

Em...what are you doing, Uncle Bobby?

Why's Nina saying that to Uncle Bobby?

Uncle Bobby's going to put salt in his soup -

too much salt's not good for you.

No, no, salt's not very good for you.

We need to find other things to make our food tasty.

You could try some orange juice. Pop some in.

Have a taste of that.

Mmm. Mmm. That's nice.

There's loads of other things you can use instead of salt.

We've discovered that it's our taste buds that help us taste things.

We're born with 10,000 of them so we can taste loads of different things.

But as we grow older, like Uncle Bobby here,

we start to lose some of them.

He can't taste his soup as well cos he doesn't have as many taste buds.

That's why he puts salt in his soup, so he can taste it better.

Oh, I'd better get back. I've had such a lovely day. Thanks very much!

-Have a lovely picnic. Bye!

-ALL: Bye, Nina!

Bye!

# It's been a busy, busy day

# Questions, answers Experiments done

# We've all used our senses in so many ways

# Tell me, Neurons What have you done today? #

Well, I definitely worked the hardest today.

Nina showed Uncle Bobby how he can use orange juice instead of salt

to make his soup lovely and tasty.

Yeah, I was pretty busy.

There was lots of looking at those tongues and looking at those peas.

I was working hard too you know.

Those tongues felt rough on top and smooth underneath.

There were sounds to keep me busy.

There was lots of listening at questions and answers.

The orange juice made a funny skooshing noise when she put it in.

I was busy helping my little brother cos there was tasting to be done.

That was great fun. I hope you've had a sensational time too. Bye!

ALL: Bye!