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News from the Provinces
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Page 18
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Designing a Playground to Find the Perimeter and Area of a Rectangle
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THROUGH mathematics activities to design a playground, it turns out students can learn the basic competencies to calculate the perimeter and area of a rectangle and use them in solving problems. This is the conclusion reached by Hurriyah, S. Pd, a Mathematics teacher at SMP YP-PGRI, Makassar.
To achieve these competencies, first the students, working in groups, were given the task to design a playground in the form of a rectangle of a specified size with several facilities. Students were come up with their own ideas for designing the layout of the fun playground. After that, students were asked to make a costed plan to make the park cooler by counting the number of trees, plants flowers and amount of grass needed.
The worksheet specified that the park was to be planted with trees around the edge, flowers were to be planted around the few facilities and the area outside the facilities was to be planted with grass. This is where the concept of calculating the perimeter and area of a rectangle came into use.
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The worksheet designed by the teacher encouraged the students to think critically.
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The student worksheet was designed to stimulate students' higher-order thinking. The students were able to solve problems related to the perimeter and area of a rectangle.
As a result of this learning experience students got didn't just memorize formulae to calculate the perimeter and area of squares, rectangle, parallelograms, rhombuses, kites and trapeziums. Rather they got to apply them in relation to real life.
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Media to support the student's learning
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Student's working in a group supported by the teacher
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A Student Assesses her Teacher
Risma Reskananga, a grade 8 student at SMPN 1 Tellulimpoe Sidrap astonished the visitors to the district showcase with her presentation about her learning experiences in school. She talked about learning in school, comparing earlier and present teaching models. Very confidently she then evaluated the learning methods used by the teachers. Here is her presentation.
Before our teachers used active learning:
- We were rarely given the opportunity to express our opinions
- The teachers just lectured us or presented material
- We worked on individual tasks
- Creating our own individual pieces of work was not important
- Teachers never appreciated our work
Sesudah kami mengikuti pembelajaran aktif:
- We are free to express our opinions, discuss and find our own information
- We learn in groups
- We compete to produce the best work
- There is a rich variety of learning activities
- We are told the strengths and weaknesses of our work
- Teachers actively support us while we are working
- We're happy, more confident, and like learning more
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Sharing Innovation in Junior Secondary Education
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Edition 07/August 2010
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