Design and Application of Augmented Reality in Science Education to Develop Students' Critical Thinking Skills

The goal of this project is to create instructional materials based on augmented reality (AR) that will enhance students’ critical thinking abilities. There were 25 pupils enrolled in the public junior high school where the study was done. The ADDIE approach is being used in this development research study. The resulting product is AR-based media equipped with learning devices consisting of a Learning Implementation Plan, Student Worksheets, test instruments. Data collection was carried out using validation sheets, learning implementation sheets, student activity sheets, critical thinking tests and student response questionnaires. The percentage of each score attained was calculated in order to analyse the data. The findings indicated that the student worksheet’s validity scored 85.3 in the very valid category, the learning implementation plan’s validity scored 87.3 in the same area, and the learning outcome test’s average validity score was 90 very valid. With an average of 93.6%, learning implementation indicated very good outcomes; student activities in learning showed very good results with an average of 94.3%; and 88% of student responses fell into the very good category. The critical thinking test’s findings indicated that the critical thinking indicators of interpretation, analysis, and explanation had the biggest increases, and the conclusion indicator saw the lowest. The study’s conclusion is that teachers can use the augmented reality-based learning tool to teach the Life Organization System’s content since it is valid, practical, and effective.