COMPARATIVE STUDY OF RICE (OryzasativaL.) CULTIVATION IN POLYBAG TO CULTIVATION IN LOWLAND

Purpose of the study: Rice (Oryza sativa L.) is the leading food consumed by Indonesian people even in Asia. The various innovations in rice cultivation still being developed to increase the yield both in quantity and quality. In general, rice cultivation is planted in the lowland. This research aims to compare the productivity of rice cultivation in a polybag to rice cultivation in the lowland. Methodology: The size of the polybag that used in the experiment is 40x40 cm with space 50 cm of each other. The experiment was conducted in Nganjuk, East Java, Indonesia. The variables studied are rice yield and rice varieties. The varieties used are Ciherang and Sertani 12. Main Findings: The result showed that rice production yield includes the number of filled grains, total grain, and panicle number in polybag more than in lowland. Rice cultivation produces 2 kg/m2 in a polybag and 1 kg/m2 in the lowland. The panicle number of rice in polybag is more than in lowland, i.e., 12 in a polybag and 6 in the lowland. For the rice variety, Ciherang and Sertani 12 have the same yield in a polybag. It is 2 kg/m2. Applications of this study: The rice cultivation in polybags has an easy cultivation system and suitable for urban areas where agricultural land is limited. Besides, it can be the solution for decreasing agricultural land from time to time. Novelty/Originality of this study: The novelty of this research is the use of polybags as the media of rice cultivation, which is not commonly done in farming

The Use of Digital Storytelling to Stimulate Learners’ Listening Comprehension

This study was conducted to investigate the teacher’s ways of teaching digital storytelling to improve learners’ listening comprehension and find out learners’ responses to the use of digital storytelling to stimulate their listening comprehension. The research method employed in this study was a qualitative method with a case study approach. An English teacher and eleventh-grade students at one of the senior high schools in Ciamis took part as the participants. The data were obtained from classroom observation, structured interviews, and questionnaires. The validity data was proceeded by the triangulation method. The finding revealed that the teacher in fact used top-down and bottom-up strategy in teaching listening using digital storytelling. In addition, in teaching and learning process of listening, the teacher used digital storytelling media as an activity that enables students understand what the speaker’ speech from the video, develops student motivation, and improves students' listening skills. This strategy gave students better understanding of a certain topic of listening. Furthermore, the students considered the teaching-learning process of listening through digital storytelling as an activity that makes students understand the speaker speech about in the video. Thus, the use of digital storytelling in learning makes learning joyful because of the ease of use and availability of facilities. The researcher recommended free and easily accessible digital media such as interesting digital storytelling to be practiced in classroom learning