Dog Movie
Pupils watch a short movie about dogs and then discuss how we can learn from the way dogs use their sense of smell.
Age Group: 9-12 years
Duration: 20 minutes
Biomimicry Connection:
Even small children know that dogs have a better sense of smell than we do. Now engineers have figured out how dogs are able to sniff out everything from bombs to disease, and mimic the dogs speical abilities in new innovations.
Activity Details:
Tools and Materials
- Projector, laptop and internet.
- Access to movie - here.
Description
- Discuss with pupils which senses we use to perceive our surroundings. Name all the senses we humans have and which organs provide them. Which sense do we humans use most often? How about animals? Do you think some animals use other senses more than humans do? Ask for examples. One well-known example is a dog - what sense is most important for a dog? For example, would it recognise its owner if it were blindfolded and its ears were tied? How?
- Introduce the film which is about why dogs have such a special sense of smell. Before starting the film, provide pupils with some questions to focus on during it, for example:
- What is the dog‘s name?
- Where does the dog work?
- How many times per second can dogs inhale and exhale?
- In the film, it was mentioned that a dog's sense of smell is 15 times better than our human sense of smell. In what way?
- Once the film is over, review pupil answers to the questions.
- Ask pupils to discuss “how do people benefit from the exceptional sense of smell dogs have?” Pupils might come up with suggestions such as: police use – tracking lost people or people on the run, drug search; avalanche dogs; medicine – diagnosing ill people, people with COVID-19).
Additional information
Learn more about how dogs use their sense of smell (read here).