JP/17/RUDY

Rudy makes biology learning fun for students

Sri Wahyuni The Jakarta Post/Yogyakarta

Bringing the subject closer and making it more interesting are believed to be keys to more effective teaching and learning processes in a classroom. This is true at least for Rudy Prakanto, 37, a teacher at state-owned SMU 6 Yogyakarta high school.

Adopting this theory, he has succeeded in making biology -- a subject that many high school students often see as boring and abstract -- into something interesting and challenging for students.

Thanks to his innovative teaching methods, he has also succeeded in increasing students' courage not just to create scientific works of quality, but also find answers to the real problems they encounter in their respective communities.

"I call it mimikri, from the word mimicry, to symbolize a quick adaptation of students into the environment," said Rudy, who has just won the 2005 Science Education Award from the Indonesia Toray Science Foundation (ITSF) for the methods he created.

Using his methods, according to Rudy, students are encouraged to quickly adapt to the environment and find solutions to the problems they may find.

Speaking to The Jakarta Post at his house in a hamlet called Janti in Kulonprogo regency some 25 kilometers west of Yogyakarta, Rudy said that the name was also an acronym of mengeksplorasi (exploring), mengaplikasi konsep (applying concepts) and refleksi diri (self reflection).

Exploring means the teacher has the task of exploring the students' initial knowledge about a particular subject matter. Applying concepts means the teacher has to bring the subject matter closer and make it less abstract to students. Self- reflection means students have to be encouraged to be able to communicate what they have discovered through a presentation in front of the class.

"The key to this method is basically freeing the students from pressure and fear and to freely express what they have in mind in the class," Rudy said.

At schools at the moment, according to Rudy, what happens in most classes is a monologue system in which the teacher perceives him/herself as being everything. As such, therefore, the teacher will be upset if the class becomes noisy.

"What I've been developing through mimikri is a democratic class in which the students feel free to express anything without being afraid of being insulted by both the teacher or their fellow students," said Rudy, underlining the importance of considering every opinion that the students may express as being equally important as others.

Rudy is not exaggerating. Watching Rudy's class, one may be surprised by the way he teaches. The class is not quiet at all. Students' shouting questions to Rudy, or discussing a problem noisily among themselves, are common scenes in Rudy's classes.

"Pak Rudy, can I do this?" a student shouted.

"Pak Rudy, look at what I've done! Am I doing it right?" another student shouted.

The class was dynamic. Every student was actively involved in learning activity even during introductory parts in which Rudy explains a topic to help students understand the bigger picture of the subject being learned.

In Rudy's class, students are usually divided into groups. The class mostly starts with group discussions during which Rudy digs into the students' knowledge, providing them with related information, and allowing them to find problems related to the subject being learned to be solved through scientific inquiry.

"All activities are basically developed to make students realize that biology is not just a theory or material to memorize, but it is something of great advantage to the community," said Rudy, who is a graduate of Yogyakarta Teacher Training Institute (IKIP), now Yogyakarta State University (UNY).

Making an abstract subject into something applicable in the eyes of the students, he said, was another basic idea of Mimikri.

Mimikri allows students to catch the essence of the subject being learned so that they can develop themselves, and finally come up with scientific works that are sometimes surprising even to me as the teacher," said Rudy, mentioning a number of his students' research projects that had gained local, national and even international recognition.

Thanks to the method, a number of awards are now in the hands of some of Rudy's students in recognition of their participation in various science competitions at local, national, and even in the international levels.

Research conducted by three of his students, Arko Jatmiko, Saum, and Jalu, on the use of banana tree tubers to make crackers, for example, won an international prize in 2003 from the youth business innovation competition held by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).

Research by his student Rizky Yuda on the use of a propellant with zeolit (green sand) to reduce carbon monoxide emissions in motorcycles, also won first prize at the national scientific competition for teenagers (LKIR) held by the Indonesian Institute of Science (LIPI) in 2003.

Similarly, research into the use of solid waste in tofu cottage industries to make crackers won his students Agnes Widya, Lutfi and Nur Rizqi first place in the national business innovation competition held by the Ministry of Education.

Meanwhile, research on the use of liquid waste in the same cottage industry as a fertilizer for tomato plants won his student Agnes Widya second place in the LKIR held by Yogyakarta- based Ahmad Dahlan University.

Rudy said he has been developing mimikri since 1995, when he was still a teacher at the state-run SLTP 3 Ngawen junior high school in Gunungkidul, although it was then applied with a slightly different approach.

When he was moved to SMU 6 Yogyakarta in 2001, after winning LIPI's national teacher creativity competitions in 1997 and 2000, he continued applying and developing the method.

"I believe mimikri can be applied to other subjects, because basically it is only a matter of how to make learning fun for students," said father of two Rudy, who has recently often been invited to share his methods with other teachers.

Once the students have fallen in love with the subject, according to Rudy, they would voluntarily and happily do whatever the teacher asked them to do regarding the subject.

"For me, what is more important is providing students with as many learning experiences as possible rather than thronging them with abundant learning materials. This is the philosophy of mimikri," he said. *