IAINU Tuban students participating in community service in Malaysia collaborate and hold various activities

Not only engaging in activities with their own group, students from the Nahdlatul Ulama Islamic Institute Tuban who are conducting Community Service Programmes in Malaysia are also collaborating with other student groups to implement various programmes. One of them was with students participating in the Community Service Programme from Undaris Semarang. These two groups of students collaborated to develop ethnomathematics through technology-based traditional games presented to migrant children in Malaysia. This community service activity aims to increase understanding of Engklek Etnomath. Children are introduced to the game of engklek with flat patterns. Through this activity, they learn geometric concepts (squares, triangles, and lines of symmetry) and numeracy (simple addition, even and odd numbers). In addition, an Educational Snakes and Ladders game was introduced, which is a modified version of the traditional snakes and ladders game with literacy and numeracy questions. Each step taken by the child contains a simple question, whether it be about counting, reading vocabulary, or cultural values. This game is supported by Wordwall, a web-based digital platform that provides various types of interactive and printable activities to support learning. These include quizzes, crossword puzzles, memory games, picture matching, and so on. The children were very enthusiastic about the work programme from the international Community Service Programme students because they were able to gain a deeper understanding of environmental protection through the videos provided by the international Community Service Programme students. They were also able to answer the questions asked by the students. “We want the children of SB At-Tanzil to be more enthusiastic in studying seriously but also interspersed with play, and we hope they enjoy this,” said Fima Nursalnia Salma, one of the IAINU students participating in the Community Service Programme in Malaysia. “I am very happy because with international Community Service Programme students, my friends and I are more active in learning. We are able to learn arithmetic better through these games. I also like it,” said Alif, one of the students at SB At-Tanzil. Author: Fima Nursalnia Salma