Free Rice Bling

Day 3/365 (1/3/2012)

One of the most brilliant websites of all time is Freerice.com.  Originally begun as an entrepreneurial SAT review site, participants answer multiple choice questions; for every correct answer, 10 actual grains of rice are given to real people at different Free Rice Food Distribution Sites, all paid for by sponsors through the United Nations World Food Programme.  If a player answers incorrectly, the correct answer is given, and the question reappears later.  In this manner, Free Rice fulfills its two goals:

• Provide education to everyone for free.
• Help end world hunger by providing rice to hungry people for free.

Players can choose from a wide range of subjects, including English Vocabulary, English Grammar, French, Italian, German, Spanish, Literature, Famous Paintings, World Capitals, Flags of the World, Identify Countries on the Map, Basic Math (Pre-Algebra),  Multiplication Table, and Chemical Symbols.

In my classroom, I challenged each of my students to personally earn 50,000 grains of rice, therein feeding 25 meals each (I counted 2,000 grains to equal a small bowl of rice).  Today in my first day back we held a medal ceremony (complete with Olympic anthem and a victory lap) to celebrate all those who have completed the goal.  It was cheesy and cheap...but priceless.  Middle schoolers taking time out of their own lives to literally feed others...invaluable!!!  Great day.