FreeRice.com

http://www.freerice.com

A practical approach to alleviating world hunger and saving human lives.

What is the site about?

It is a very simple, straightforward site. You are asked to choose the meaning of a given word from a list of four other words. For every word you get right, 20 grains of rice are donated to the United Nations World Food Program.

The donated rice is paid for by the advertising which appears on the bottom of the screen. The level of difficulty is automatically adjusted as you play, so everyone can be involved.

Why was it chosen as site of the week?

It was chosen because:

• Every day about 25,000 people, many of them children, die from hunger or hunger-related causes. Just after Christmas is a good time to help children in Ireland to realise how lucky they are by comparison to millions of children in the developing world.
  
  
• It makes it very easy for children and students to help others.
  
  
• The bowl of rice on the screen fills up as you get words correct, so there is plenty of motivation for students to keep working at their vocabulary.
  
  
• Its a win-win situation - students are learning and hungry people are being supplied with food.

How can it be used as an educational resource?

Used simply as a language exercise the site will improve the vocabulary of students using it. A class could aim to donate, between them, a given amount of rice in a week. Students could compete with each other based either on how much rice they donated in a set time, or on what vocabulary level they reached.

The site provides plenty of links to allow it to be used as a starting point to explore hunger in the world. Students can research the causes of hunger, the areas most affected, what is being done to help and how Governments are involved.

For senior classes in Primary Schools, the link to Poverty.com provides a relatively brief overview of the issues involved.

Secondary School students will find information useful for a range of subjects including CSPE, Environmental and Social Studies, Geography and Economics.

The World Food Program site includes information about the causes of hunger and the areas of the world most affected.

By clicking on the Map of the World, students can get information about each country where the WFP operates.

The Photo Gallery WFP Through the Eyes of a Child shows pictures drawn by children who are benefitting.

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