Under red light to visually mask what they are testing, students learned how to use their sense of taste and smell in CCOVI’s state-of-the-art sensory lab to distinguish which grape juices have high or low acid or sugar and how those factors impact sweetness.More than 200 Hamilton and Niagara high school students and science teachers visited Brock Dec. 4 for Biological Sciences Day, taking part in academic and experiential learning activities that highlight opportunities available at the University. Lab exercises in grape and wine science, plant sciences, bioinformatics and biomedical data sciences, neuroscience, ecology and evolution, and molecular biology were offered.
At the Cool Climate Oenology and Viticulture Institute, students participated in a grape juice chemical analysis to determine levels of sweetness and acidity. They also visited the Institute’s sensory lab where — under a red light to visually mask what they were testing — they were tasked with identifying various tastes and aromas in food and non-alcoholic beverages.
Brock graduate student Reid Ball (left) assists high school students with an experiment to determine the brix level (sugar content in grape juice) during their visit to the Cool Climate Oenology and Viticulture Institute on Dec. 4.
