TANGRAM GAME ACTIVITIES, HELPING THE STUDENTS DIFFICULTY IN UNDERSTANDING THE CONCEPT OF AREA CONSERVATION PAPER TITLE

Providing formula too early is mostly done by the teacher in teaching area measurement topic. In fact, the students are still incapable to fully understand what the formula is. This situation is called the mismatch situation. Hence, remembering the formula of the area of shapes will be the only possible way by the students to proceed in the class. The Pendidikan Matematika Realistik Indonesia (PMRI), which is the adapted RME with Indonesian context, could be used to overcome the mismatch condition in Indonesian students. PMRI introduce the emergent modeling as mean to bridge the students’ difficulty in achieving higher understanding on mathematics through guided reinvention and didactical phenomenology. In addition, several studies pointed out that the teaching of area conservation as the introduction in area measurement should be administered properly. Furthermore, van Hiele proposes that the use of puzzle could be promising in the topic of area conservation. Thus, we develop a series of learning activities in the 3 rd grade class by using tangram as the main tools. The result of this research is that the activities provided in the learning trajectory could help the students in understanding area conservation. The students are still unable to do measuring using the idea of conservation. However, when they are asked to compare the given shapes, they successfully apply the concept of area conservation well using tangram idea. Moreover, they also experience a lively group discussion; in fact, the class is not accustomed with discussion