Alameda Journal
College instructor digs deep for ancestry lessons
Kara Andrade STAFF WRITER
The question of what happens when you dispel the notions people have about their heritage has been on Nathan Strong's mind for the last few years. It is a question that has motivated the College of Alameda anthropology instructor to begin DNA testing -- ancestral DNA testing to be exact -- in one of his classes.
"I think learning is about experiencing things, and it shouldn't be just in the classroom," Strong said. "What better way to learn about genetics and evolution than to find out your own ancestry instead of listening to some lecture?
"If we're talking about prehistoric man and our ancestors, then let's experience it, let's learn about our connection to that history."
Strong, who was recently selected for inclusion in the 2004 edition of Who's Who Among America's Teachers, an honor bestowed on only 5 percent of the nation's educators each year, has been teaching at the Peralta Colleges since 1988. Having earned two doctorates in Education/Sociology and Anthropology from UC Berkeley, he understands the value of "hands on" learning.
"I think that if you really love and care about students," Strong said, "then you try to give them learning experiences they can relate to and they can connect to and become skilled at. It's trying to reach them on many levels."
While teaching one of his introductory anthropology courses this spring, he learned about DNAPrint Genomics, Inc., a company based in Sarasota, Fla., that provides people with the opportunity to explore their genetic heritage by taking a simple autosomal genetic test that gives them their raw genetic data.
The test is called Ancestryby DNA 2.5, and it's as simple as taking a mouth swab that contains thousands of cells each containing DNA that is 99.9 percent identical, except for 0.1 percent that is different from person to person. These differences in chromosomal regions are called genetic markers or Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNPs). SNPs also happen to be different among the world's continental population groups.
The test gives you an estimated percentage of ancestry from the four major historical population groups: Native American, European, East Asian and African.
"I knew this kind of testing was very new and cutting edge," Strong said. "I wanted the students to learn that in biology there aren't these separate groups separated into racial categories. We're talking about a common humanity and that we share more than we think."
After much begging and pleading with DNAPrint Genomics and some convincing of the college administration, Strong was able to secure 200 tests, normally $219 per test, to be used primarily for testing students and some faculty at the college for their genetic heritage.
Strong put much effort into making sure the tests were completely confidential, and to permit students to decline this particular project and not be penalized in any way. Students and faculty from other departments, including history and psychology, were also offered this opportunity.
Kerry Compton, vice president for student services at the college, said she became interested in the study because she believed that people were more than those little boxes checked off to identify their heritage. She took the test, and was surprised when the results of her test showed she had no marker for being Native American, which her family believed was part of their heritage.
Her result came back as 4 percent African, 4 percent Southeast Asian and 92 percent European.
"It shakes you up a little and how you think of yourself," Compton said. "It makes you feel a part of something larger, of being part of the human race. These kinds of tests keep people open-minded about the diversity of our world."
Compton said it came as no surprise to her that of the 200 tested, only two were 100 percent of any one heritage, and every one else was a mixture of heritages.
"I have been trying for years to clearly show my students that race, although an integral part of our identity, is actually a concept that has no biological basis in modern scientific thought, ..." Bishop T. Scott, instructor of psychology at College of Alameda, wrote in his letter of support for Strong.
"Dr. Strong went that extra mile to provide our college community with an opportunity to experience that first hand using the very latest information and technique concerning genetics and race."
For Strong, the benefits of using this hands-on approach to teach students about themselves and their place in history extends into the future when students will have to make more informed decisions about these issues as they emerge in the field of eugenics and cloning.
He hopes to be able to include this test as part of his regular curriculum, and is looking forward to the fall semester when his next group of students will be able to experience it. It's a direction in learning where he thinks Alameda and the rest of the community needs to be headed.
"I would like Alameda to be seen as a place where the general community connects Alameda to being student centered," Strong said, "where cutting-edge things are being taught in the colleges to better prepare them for the future. It's important that we begin to teach students that we as a human family are not these discrete separate groups and that we begin to define ourselves in a different way."
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Updated 02/02/06