If you have not used the Free Rice site lately, or never checked it, now is the time. Free Rice, which started as a vocabulary site, now offers math, foreign language, geography, and other subject areas. It is an easy site to use, one students will enjoy using in their free time. Best of all, for every correct answer, 10 grains of rice are donated through a United Nations relief agency in an effort to end world hunger. Spend less than 5 minutes checking the site and trying the questions. Although the questions follow a simple multiple-choice format, the intention is to attract users, and with that goal in mind, the format works fine. After all, the more questions answered correctly, the more rice, donated. This site is both educational and philanthropic. Over 62 billion grains have been donated to date. Spread the word, and please comment. Here is a direct link to the page that lists the subject areas. Image is the Free Rice logo, taken directly from the website www.freerice.com
13 comments:
I love this site! I had never heard of it before Travis mentioned it in class this semester. I love the concept of donating rice for correct answers. I am now a Free Rice addict! I feel like I am keeping my mind sharp and saving the world one grain of rice at a time...
Yes, Kim, I log on to this site periodically to test my memory and explore new facts. Although your focus is on teaching in the lower grades, this site is good for students in the upper-elementary grades to start to learn about and use. I wonder how the site will progress in the future and if we will see more philanthropic sites like this one.
I looked at this site when Travis has mentioned it in a previous online discussion. It is definitely addictive. I think it is a great tool to help students with general knowledge and can be used if you have a spare 5 or 10 minutes in class. Also telling students about it will no doubt increase the amount of rice donated. I particularly liked trying out the capital cities quiz as my Dad used to teach me these and then quiz me on them when I was younger and we would be driving places. It was great to see how much this info has stuck in my mind and I was able to donate lots of rice!
I haven't been on the free rice site since they added the subject areas. It is so ADDICTIVE! You just want to keep challenging yourself and time can truly get away from you, plus all the rice you are earning for world hunger and having so much fun at the same time--plus you are LEARNING some interesting information. I never thought of using it as learning experience for students. I can see my 6th graders working together in pairs to try and come up with the answers. The Rice site could also be used as a little team competition to see which team could earn the most rice. With limited computer availablility this could still be such a useful tool!
What an awesome creation this site is! Not only is it educationally useful, but spreads good to others... It is a fine example of what we are trying to teach our students all the time!!
Jill I absolutely agree. What a great combination. I think the addition of the subject areas is also great and of course I hope they add more topics under math (right now they only have basic math). More difficult topics would lend themselves to use in higher grades. I hope the creators of this site continue to expand!
I love this site. I found it a while back when I was searching for online games. I think that it is a great way to test students and also get them involved with world issues. I am happy that the site is starting to add more subject areas besides language arts. I think that the site would be a great tool in a social studies classroom to introduce world hunger and different creative ways to help out. Students can see that one person can help combat a huge problem like world hunger.
I heard about this website a while back. I like the idea that students can play on this website for a good cause. I think when students know that they are making a difference they will want to do better. I like also how this site offers different options as well. Students are learning to make a difference in thier livs and in the lives of others.
As I mentioned in class, I played around with www.freerice.com a few years ago when it floated around through an email, but I had forgotten about it. I love it, though. It's fun and philanthropic, which makes you forget the purpose: to learn new vocabulary. Anytime we can convince students that learning is fun, we've succeeded! Excellent site; I've added it to my blog!
I though this was a good learning website, with the added benefit of simultaneously supporting an excellent cause! As a math teacher, I focused on the math section. The math section had two parts: basic math and multiplication table. Basic math had ten levels within it; ranging from level one with simple operations (+, -, etc.) all the way up to level ten with questions on topics such as the laws of exponents. I liked the range, from primary-level to pre-algebra, of the questions that were available. Also, I like how the game adjusts the level based on the questions that are correctly answered. This would make a nice review tool for students.
I have never heard of this site until I heard about it in class. I think this is an excellent site for students to use because they can help others while they learn. Oftentimes, students are ot motivated to learn because they do not get an instant result. This site would allow students to see instantly how their learning impact the rest of the world because they are earning rice for people all over the world when they get an answer correct. This type of rewarding system would serve as a great incentive for students because they can see that they are making a difference.
When we were presenting about other people's websites on tuesday, I saw this website in someone's list of recommended sites. I remember being interested when I saw it, but forgot to look into it. I was excited when I saw it on this blog. It's such a cool idea to help people donate. I did the spanish words category for a while. I was really into it. It wasn't too hard to do, which I appreciated, and I loved how the bowl filled up with rice. My only concern is that there is no way to be sure that I really just donated those pieces of rice. It says that I did, but I wish I felt more secure about my donation. I don't know if everyone would enjoy this site as much as I did (I'm a dork when it comes to learning Spanish) but I thought it was great. The content is definitely at a level where students could participate in this site. It would also be excellent for a unit on global awareness or world issues. I can easily see kids competing with their friends to give the most pieces of rice. I would love to use this in my class one day.
This site is great! I found it awhile back and use it with my resource room students when they have 10 minutes left to class and are losing their focus. We use the projector and it feels more like a video game then a lesson. The fact that you are donating rice makes it even more important!!
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