Learn Vocabulary and End World Hunger with Free Rice
Visit FreeRice.com. Learn some vocab. Feed some starving children.
Wouldn't it be great if you could help end world hunger by just spending a little time on the internet?
Well, you can - at Free Rice.
The entire site is built around a simple vocabulary game. It provides you with a word and four choices - you match the word to its synonym/definition.
As you play, it tracks each right answer you get - and for every right answer, the website donates 20 grains of rice to the United Nations World Food Program.
It sounds too good to be true, but it's a great example of how the web works. Everything on the web can be monetized. Put an ad on a webpage, and each visitor is now a source of income. In this case, that income is being directly funneled into a great charity.
In this case, there is also a tremendous amount of traffic. His statistics show that they've donated over 10 billion grains of rice - which equals over 500,000,000 correct answers. That's a lot of vocabulary.
I first read about the site on an education blog. A teacher was using it with his class (middle school kids, I think) as a warm-up exercise. Each day they'd answer a few questions.
As a teacher, this tool has a couple of great purposes. It can help our students learn vocabulary - important for life, for the HSPA, and for the SATs. It also helps raise awareness of a very real problem - world hunger.
And it helps kids learn that they can make a difference. Something as benign as playing a video game can send food to hungry children halfway across the world.
So spread the word about Free Rice. Answer a few questions yourself - it's pretty fun.
This is such a great idea, I think I might look into making something similar in the next few months. He's kind of cornered the market on vocab - so maybe I'll make a math quiz program. Now I just to find another charity to donate too...
By the way, any math teachers that would find such a website useful and/or interesting - be sure to leave a comment with suggestions for functionality. I'm a Social Studies teacher, so I might not know best what a math student needs.
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