Abstract

We present a collection of analogies that are intended to help students better understand the foreign and often nuanced vocabulary of the genetics curriculum. Why is it called the “wild type”? What is the difference between a locus, a gene, and an allele? What is the functional (versus a rule-based) distinction between dominant and recessive alleles? It is our hope that by using these analogies, teachers at all levels of the K–16 curriculum can appeal to the common experience and common sense of their students, to lay a solid foundation for mastery of genetics and, thereby, to enhance understanding of evolutionary principles.