CURRICULUM ARTICLE Teaching Tree-Thinking to Undergraduate Biology Students

Abstract Evolution is the unifying principle of all biology, and understanding how evolutionary relationships are repre-sented is critical for a complete understanding of evolution. Phylogenetic trees are the most conventional tool for display-ing evolutionary relationships, and “tree-thinking ” has been coined as a term to describe the ability to conceptualize evolutionary relationships. Students often lack tree-thinking skills, and developing those skills should be a priority of biology curricula. Many common student misconceptions have been described, and a successful instructor needs a suite of tools for correcting those misconceptions. I review the literature on teaching tree-thinking to undergraduate students and suggest how this material can be presented within an inquiry-based framework