Moving to the English Department this academic year I was looking for a range of English learning activities, spelling tools and edugames to provide transition activities at the start or end of the lesson. This ‘need’ brought me back to my delicious bookmarks and to Freerice. I have been using Freerice on and off for two years. Its simple, effective academically and worthwhile humanitarianly and NOW its gone social.
Freerice can now be played and shared. So this week, I introduced each of my teaching groups to the site. We played a little in class and I then requested that students sign up, join the groups I had prepared and play a little over the weekend. This week, I plan to share the individual and groups scores and let their competitive instincts do the rest. Before I go further, just what exactly is Freerice.
FreeRice is a non-profit website run by the United Nations World Food Programme. Since its launch in 2007 Freerice has been able to raise enough to feed 4.2 million people.
How does it work?
When you play the game, sponsor banners appear on the bottom of your screen for every correct answer that you choose. The money generated by these banners is then used to buy the rice.
What the students wanted to know.
Facts, numbers, statistics. A little research and number crunching took care of that.
- Each person requires 400 grams of rice (plus other nutrients) to ensure a minimum of 2,100 kilocalories per day.
- There 48 grains of rice in a gram. To be practical, make it 50.
- Freerice players earn 10 grains for each correct answer.
- 400 grams x 48 grains = 20,000 grains per day
- 140,000 grains per week
- 7,280,000 grains per year.
Simply put, for a group of 30 students, that is just 67 correct answers, per student, per day.
I then wrapped it all up in a simple online resource for the students, with a challenge, so that I wouldn’t have to keep repeating myself.
Are you going to finish strong?
Your Responsibility as a Group
Feed someone for a year.
Your Target as a Group
Feed a family for a Year.
What are you waiting for? Sign in, log on and get learning. Your group is Mr_stillxxx
Learning with a purpose. One of my students has donated over 5,000 grains of in 48hrs.