Fill Bellies with Free Rice

Free Rice

Free Rice truly sounds like it’s too good to be true, especially in an age of digital deception. Except, Free Rice is true and truly fun!

Who created Free Rice?

Managed by the United World Food Programme and partnered with the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University, Free Rice aims at providing a free education to any person with Internet access and to providing rice for hungry people around the world. Sponsors who are featured on the site donate the rice, but any person can make a charitable donation to the UN World Food Programme to help buy more rice.

How it works?

There are various subjects to choose from including English, Art, Chemistry, Geography, Math, and World Languages. After selecting a subject, the participant is prompted with a series of questions, which will vary in difficulty depending on the participant’s responses. Questions are presented in a multiple-choice format, and if a question is missed, it will be asked later in the game to ensure the participant has learned the material. For every correct answer, Free Rice donates ten grains of rice to people in need. Amazing.

Here’s a sample question from the vocabulary section of Free Rice:

Small means:

a.    little

b.    old

c.    big

d.    yellow

With the vocabulary section, the difficulty levels range from 1 to 60 so people can track their improvement.

More info:

To date, Free Rice has donated over 75 billion grains of rice. Rest assure, 100% of rice (or money) donated goes to people in need. The Free Rice FAQ section makes sure to alleviate any doubts with a clear explanation of the site’s goals.

How can teachers use Free Rice?

First, Free Rice helps build not only vocabulary but also helps students learn material from other subjects in a fun and effective manner. Teachers can bring students to the computer lab when they have earned “Preferred Activity Time” and allow them to play Free Rice.

Second, Free Rice demonstrates to students the importance of community service. By playing on FreeRice.com, students are aiding people in need throughout the world. Students of the 21^st century should be exposed to global citizenry, and Free Rice is an excellent avenue to illustrate the student’s role in the world. Free Rice also provides additional resources regarding world hunger so that teachers can further lessons by helping students define world hunger and identify methods to combat the epidemic.

So what are you waiting for? Bet you can’t get to level 60!