Minggu, 01 April 2012

Reflection II-How to Solve Word Problem?


Reflection II
How to Solve Word Problem?

Last Monday, on March 26th 2012, Mister Marsigit as our English lecturer gave to us many videos about how to solve word problem of mathematics in his class time. It made us can learn about this case easily because that was very interesting videos. Those videos in Mister Marsigit class are the videos from teachers in overseas countries. It was very interesting because we can also learn about the way to teach from experienced teachers.  Mister Marsigit also gave us an opportunity to write our own reflection of those videos. So, this is my reflection of those "How to solve word problem?" videos:
Actually, life is a word problem. A war, education, trade, environment, education, religion, and many other things in this world have their own word problem. Mathematics is too. Mathematics also has word problem to solve. Word problem in mathematics is about how to solve a case in our daily life using mathematical languages. These mathematical languages include theorem, lemma, and many other laws that have agreed from thousand years ago until now. These languages, actually we called by formula in mathematics.
A word problem is not easy as it is seen. Sometimes, students get many difficulties to understand about that word problem. They have no idea about that or sometimes they get wrong interpretation on it. Many of students sometimes have understood about the word problem but get many difficulties of how to convert sentences in a word problem to mathematical sentences.
From Mister Marsigit's video, I can make a conclusion about how to solve a word problem in mathematics easily. I have learned about a formula that can we used to understand the case in word problem. This formula is BUCK$. What is BUCK$? Is it one United State dollar? Wess, calm down! Wait a minute! BUCK$ in here is not about one United State dollar. But, BUCK$ in here is about an acronym of a formula that can we use to understand about a word problem. 
What is BUCK$?
B, Box the question
U, Underline info that we needed
C, Circle the vocabularies
K, Knock up information you don't need
          In another word, we can simplify that formula into SOS formula. SOS in here means simplify; organize; and solve the problem.
          Do you want to try our BUCK$ formula to solve a word problem. Calm down! Please be patient! I will write a word problem and show you about the way to find the answer using BUCK$ formula after I have explained you about the BUCK$ formula in detail.
          Here is the explanation:
1.     B, Box the Question;
To solve a problem, actually we must know about the question. Students when solve word problems often forget about this main part. So, they get a wrong interpretation about a problem. To make the question easy to see and remember, we must use a sign that make a question different with other sentences. In here, we use a box as sign of question in a word problem.
2.    U, Underline Info that We needed;
Sometimes, a word problem is too long. It also makes students are being lazy to read and understand about the word problem. This second part of BUCK$ formula give us solution of this difficulty. So, after make a box in the word problem's question, actually we have known what infos that we needed to know for answering the question. Then, let's make a sign on those infos by underlining them!
3.    C, Circle the vocabularies;
After we know about the question and know about the infos that we needed, we must pay attention on vocabularies in our word problem. Vocabularies in here mean many term that used in the word problem, such as: week, month, second, minute, discount, interest, kilograms, meters, and etc.  We must know about what a week is, what a month is, what a second is, and etc. After that, we must make them match to the question about. In here, we can use circle to make signs on vocabularies.
4.    K, Knock out Information You Don't Need
After you do the first three steps, you must do the fourth step of BUCK$ formula. This step is knocking out information you don't need. This fourth step means that you must eliminate the "rubbish" information that is not used. What do I mean with "rubbish" information in here? In here, "rubbish" information is about information that only make the word problem is too long. Actually, this information is not important to known. You can scratch these "rubbish" information out or use "POW" sign on them.

          Ok, let's try to implement our BUCK$ formula in a word problem.
"One day, Ani goes to the market. In that place, she wants to buy a dress in a boutique. The price of the dress is Rp.100.000,-. If that boutique gives discount to Ani about 20% off, how much money that will Ani spend for the dress?"
B, Box the question
U, Underline info that we needed
C, Circle the vocabularies
K, Knock up information you don't need
"One day, Ani goes to the market. In that place, she wants to buy a dress in a boutique. The price of the dress is Rp.100.000,-. If that boutique gives discount to Ani about 20% off,
 how much money that will Ani spend for the dress?"
From the infos about we know that:
·         The question: how much money that will spend for the dress?
·         The info: the price is Rp.100.000,-
     discount 20% off
·         The vocabularies: price and discount
Answer:
The question means that we must find the real price of the dress after cut with the discount off. So, the first we must find the discount of the price in rupiahs.
It means we must convert 20% into rupiahs by multiplying with the price.
It will be: 20%x100.000= 20.000.
We know that the mean of discount is reduction of the price. In the end, we just need to subtract the first price with the amount of discount in rupiahs. It will be: 100.000-20.000=80.000
So, Ani must pay Rp.80.000,- for a the dress.



          Ok, do you get this point? Isn't it too easy to use BUCK$ formula, right? Yes, of course.
          Actually, in Indonesia, we have known about the BUCK$ formula from our elementary school. Didn't you know about diketahui, ditanyakan, jawaban, and kesimpulan method from your elementary school, right?

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