2.2 How Augmented Reality Supports the Learning Objective

The main objective of this unit is to help students understand phylogeny as a system of relationships, not a linear hierarchy. Augmented Reality (AR) supports this objective by allowing learners to construct, manipulate, and visualize phylogenetic trees in three-dimensional space.
Through AR-based activities, students can:

  • place organisms relative to one another,
  • visualize branching points as common ancestors,
  • test different tree configurations based on evidence,
  • observe how changes in data affect the overall structure.

This transforms phylogenetic trees from static diagrams into interactive scientific models.