I went with “One possibility is that you are a mutant” and “Let’s explain the concept of trinucleotide repeat expansion diseases with incomplete penetrance”, rather than “How sure are you that those are your genetic parents?”
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I wish I could say it's unusual for people to still hide adoption from their adopted children but it sadly isn't. I feel bad for your student.
sep 11, 2025, 3:12 am • 2 0 • view
Ahh. I shall, then.
sep 10, 2025, 2:36 am • 0 0 • view
Note: I did not list the trait in question. The student pulled up information about it online.
sep 9, 2025, 10:20 pm • 174 1 • view
In this situations, do you calm the parents to give them a heads up in case the student asks questions? Or do you wait to see if they ask you how the topic came up?
sep 10, 2025, 3:40 am • 4 0 • view
I'm a college professor. The odds of me ever speaking to the parents are close to 0.
sep 10, 2025, 3:41 am • 34 0 • view
Fair enough
sep 10, 2025, 3:41 am • 0 0 • view
In fact, depending on the context of the conversation, that call might not even be legal.
sep 10, 2025, 2:38 pm • 11 0 • view
😬
sep 10, 2025, 1:37 am • 12 0 • view
This is also how some people learn they were donor-conceived. Sperm, egg, embryo, so many possibilities.
sep 11, 2025, 12:55 am • 0 0 • view
Indeed. I just didn't really feel that was the appropriate direction for me to go in class when someone asked. I assume competent adults are aware of the existence of adoption and gamete/embryo donation, so I addressed other biologically relevant possibilities.
sep 11, 2025, 12:58 am • 4 0 • view
I think your assumption is a little naive on the gamete front, given dd's experience, but that was 10 years ago so maybe things are better now. (dd has always known; I'm a single mom by choice.)
sep 11, 2025, 1:05 am • 0 0 • view
I guess I could amend that to "who are taking a biology-for-majors course in college", but certainly possible I'm being naive.
sep 11, 2025, 1:09 am • 2 0 • view
I included a disclaimer up front any time we used a student’s own info, that there were many reasons individual results might differ from theoretical ones, and while I might be *a* doctor, I wasn’t *their* doctor. If they had questions, they should discuss it with their doctor and/or parents.
sep 9, 2025, 11:18 pm • 34 1 • view
I used classroom examples today where I explicitly said “These aren’t actually 1 gene with 2 alleles, but for the purposes of this discussion let’s pretend” And then used not-medical stuff like whether you have hair between the knuckles on your fingers, or if your earlobes are detached.
sep 9, 2025, 11:22 pm • 29 1 • view
Ah yes. My mom has detached earlobes and my dad has attached. I am incredibly physically similar to my father, and my mom jokes that the only gene that I got from her that I actually express is earlobes.
sep 10, 2025, 12:12 am • 17 0 • view
no finger hair is an option?! today i learned…
sep 10, 2025, 4:09 pm • 0 0 • view
*grabs at ears* Ok. Ok. They are attached.
sep 10, 2025, 2:38 am • 1 0 • view
Teaching human genetics is always super fraught!
sep 9, 2025, 10:52 pm • 63 0 • view
My little sister is the only blonde/blue in our *entire* family tree on both sides. She's done genetics, so it wasn't the proverbial mailman, but we've got absolutely no idea where it came from.
sep 9, 2025, 11:28 pm • 18 0 • view
Yeah, anything color-based is *way* more complicated than it's made out to be at the K-12 levels.
sep 9, 2025, 11:31 pm • 47 1 • view
Recessive can hide.
sep 10, 2025, 2:37 am • 3 0 • view
And it seems plausible it was an easy mutation in the first place. We trace humanity to Africa, don't we?
sep 10, 2025, 8:53 am • 1 0 • view
this is why i rather do cat genetics, color-wise it's complicated but also cute cats
sep 10, 2025, 5:42 pm • 5 0 • view
sep 10, 2025, 12:07 am • 3 0 • view