Classroom Market at MTsN Klego

MATHEMATICS is not always scary. We can see this at MTsN Klego, Kabupaten Boyolali, MTsN Temon and MTsN Sambi, after the replication training on BTL2. At MTsN Klego, students have been learning Algebra and Arithmetic about ' solving simple social problems ' by doing buying and selling activities just like at the market.

Banon Sri Haryati, S.Pd, a Mathematics teachers, opened the session by brainstorming, asking her students if they had ever done buying and selling. To make thing more interesting, she asked her students to do role play. She divided the class into three groups. The first group were sellers or shop owners (consisting of four students, and each of them sold different items). The second and third groups were buyers.

After that, she distributed the lists of basic price and selling price to the sellers. She gave the buyers ' money ' so that they could buy goods. Before the activity began, the teacher told the students about the rules of the game. The sellers should try to get maximum profit and the buyers should try to buy the items as cheap as they can.

The role play lasted in 20 minutes, with the teacher supervising all activities done by the students. When it finished, the sellers counted what they had sold and the buyers were given the lists of the basic price and selling price. With these lists the buyers knew whether the items they had bought were expensive or cheap. At the end of the lesson each group presented the results of discussions regarding the percentage gains and losses for each item sold, as well as for the overall total. The teacher helped the students to determine the percentage of profit and loss of goods which had been sold.

One student commented that this activity has inspired him to try to sell goods because he can determine the appropriate percentage of profits compared to the cost price of the goods to minimize losses.