Refreshing teachers, conceptual understanding through community service.
By: Azka ‘Afifah
Saturday, August 27, 2022, lecturers and students of FKIP Sriwijaya University carried out community service activities. The activity started at 09.00 – 12.00 WIB and was opened by the dean of FKIP Sriwijaya University and the Head of the Pagaralam Service. The title of this service activity is Assistance in Understanding Geometry Materials for Mathematics Teachers in the city of Pagaralam to Improve Student Achievement.
Activities are carried out online through zoom meetings and offline at SMPN 1 Pagaralam. The speakers for this service activity is Dra. Indaryanti, M.Pd., Dr. Darmowijoyo, Zuli Nuraeni, M.Pd., Novika Sukmaningthias, M.Pd., and Dr. Yusuf Hartono. This service activity also involved Master and Bachelor Program students, namely Azka ‘Afifah, S.Pd, Dinda Syabillah, Fitri Rahmadhani, Gresilia Situmorang, and May Olivia. This service activity is also integrated with Educational Internships. The participants of this activity were mathematics teachers from both public and private schools in Pagar Alam, namely SMPN 2 Pagar Alam, SMPN 3 Pagar Alam, SMPN 5 Pagar Alam, SMPN 6 Pagar Alam, SMP Muhammadiyah, and SMP IT Ar-Raihan. .
The material presented is planes, especially triangles. At the beginning of the activity, the speaker asked the participants what the definition of a triangle was. The participants enthusiastically answered that a triangle is formed by three dots that form three line segments and draw a triangle on the board. Next, the resource person gives two pictures and asks participants to choose which one is a triangle. Participants also answered, only one of the pictures is a triangle shape and the other is a triangular area.
The activity was continued by leading the participants to find the conditions for the formation of a triangle using an experiment with the help of a stick. From this experiment, participants can conclude that in order to form a triangle, the length of the longest side of a triangle must be less than the sum of the other sides. In the middle of the activity, the resource person asked what were the difficulties in teaching geometry. The participants answered that only a few students at school had stationery that supported the learning of geometry such as compasses and arcs because the stationery shops were far from the students’ homes.
Next, the participants were directed to open the website www.mathspad.co.uk/i2/construct.php. This website can be used as a solution to the problems experienced by students. Participants were also very enthusiastic in exploring making high lines and dividing lines on triangles on the website. At the end of the activity, the participants collected the results of their exploration of the website on the Canva instructor.
