SUSTAINABLE CLASS 2: THE JOURNEY OF A PLATE OF RICE
Education that is relevant to reality and addresses problems is often echoed in various educational dialogues. American education reformer John Dewey first introduced contextual education, which emphasizes that students will process information better if learning is related to their daily lives. Contextual education addresses problems around students. For example, children who live by the beach can learn math by counting the amount of trash on the beach and children who live in the city can count the carbon they produce from their daily activities from the time they open their eyes until they fall asleep. Of course, these topics can be integrated with math learning and it is possible to connect them with local wisdom about the sea and marine ecosystems.
Not far from the capital city of Kuantan Singingi district, a school is surrounded by rubber plantations, in the yard area also overgrown with fruit plants, sometimes the school also becomes a livestock track when the off-season arrives. The off-season is usually held after farmers harvest rice fields until the planting season arrives again. The presence of the WWF and Save the Children team was welcomed by the students of class VII 1 SMPN 3 Gunung Toar cheerfully. They have received a leak from the teacher that today they will learn in the rice fields in contextual learning with the theme of the journey of a plate of rice. The purpose of this activity is for students to understand the rice production chain, map the obstacles faced by farmers at each stage of production, understand the ecosystem of rice fields and the food chain, count the calories in a plate of rice and foster a sense of gratitude and pride for growing up in a rice-producing area.
The rice plate walk was developed with the concept of from farm to table which means that students will learn a series of rice processing processes starting from seed sowing to rice served on a plate. This contextualized learning provides an opportunity for the community to be involved in the learning process. In this activity, we involved 2 farmers. This activity also contains Sustainable Development Goals such as ending hunger (SDGs 2), terrestrial ecosystems (SDGs 15) and sustainable production and consumption (SDGs 12).
The morning activities started with drawing up a learning contract together. This is important so that students learn discipline and order. Then, the committee members from WWF and Save the children reviewed the previous meeting material about the 17 Sustainable Development Goals. Rehan and Ardi, 7th grade students, took turns answering that the rice plate trip activity is related to the climate crisis where extreme climate change causes farmers to fail to harvest. After the discussion, together with the five accompanying teachers and the 3-person team, the children walked in rows to the rice fields located 300m from their school. They were also provided with a worksheet that included an explanation, a list of animal and plant observations, questions for the farmers and a table for calculating food calories.
Because it is cattle-free season, the students can only learn some farming activities such as sowing seeds, plowing fields and grinding rice. Arriving at the rice field, Mrs. Siep explained about the ecosystem and food chain. Then the students were given time to explore, observe and write down the different types of plants and animals they found. Some children looked at the irrigation to see what species of catfish or cork were around. Others tried to count the herds of buffaloes and egrets. From this activity, children learned about the ecosystem of rice fields consisting of producers, consumers, decomposers and abiotic components.
The next activity is seeding or better known as menganok by the local community. This activity was guided by the farmer's mothers. Mrs. Idet, one of the farmers explained in local language, "in our village, Teluk Beringin, sowing seeds is done in the polak or field, by loosening the soil with a hoe and then making seedling holes with a tugal". After making the hole, approximately one handful of seeds are inserted. After this explanation, the students tried to sow the seeds. During this process, the students also asked questions such as what kind of rice seeds are being planted now, how long it takes to sow the seeds, and so on. For Mrs. Idet, this was her first time doing this. As one of the members of the rice farmer group, she felt happy that the students could learn directly in the fields and be involved in planting. After sowing the seeds, the students learned to plow with the tractor. Both male and female students were very enthusiastic when plowing.
Dialogs with farmers are no less exciting than observing rice fields and plowing. In this session, students were invited to ask questions. One student asked about the constraints of farming, followed by questions about the amount of agricultural production, the causes of crop failure and motivation to become a farmer by other students. The farmers were also very enthusiastic in participating in the question and answer session with the students. Both farmers and students seemed to enjoy the session.
Before lunch, the students received material about food and energy from the WWF team. Food is likened to fuel in a vehicle. By consuming healthy food, humans can learn, run, play and do many activities. In addition, the children were also taught to count the number of calories from the plate of rice they ate. Of course, the side dishes for lunch that day were sourced from the rice fields. In the reflection session, almost all children said that today's learning was very fun and exciting. At the end of the activity they were also invited to reflect on the long process of producing a grain of rice. For this reason, they were reminded to always be grateful and proud of farmers.
Contextual learning like the rice plate journey helps children see the reality of agriculture in their village. From this learning they are taught to be critical and manage food sources skillfully and wisely.
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