Fancy a bit of vocabulary driven fun? Fancy using your knowledge to feed someone who really needs the help?
Courtesy of Auntie Beeb I’ve just heard of a great site which combines my love of vocabulary with a means of doing good. FreeRice.com does exactly what it says on the tin… it gives away free rice every time you can give the correct definition of a word. Er, that’s it!
I just wish they did a slightly easier version (maybe for 5 grains a word) that I could use with my pupils… but perhaps I’m doing them a disservice. I’ll be telling them about it tomorrow and lets hope they can start making a difference.
For real interest, have a look at the totals page… There can’t be many places where you can see the viral power of the internet… I only wish I had the skills to interpret what it shows and how to apply it to education.
November 11, 2007 at 9:43 pm
Great website, great idea that free rice! I thought my vocabulary was good till I tried it. I’ll be passing this one on to my friends.
November 11, 2007 at 10:09 pm
I managed about 160 grains before my first mistake, but that included quite a few guesses!
November 12, 2007 at 12:20 pm
Ah, but what was your level? (wee number which kept changing…)
November 12, 2007 at 2:39 pm
The best I managed was 44 (%?), but I’ve no idea what it’s out of.
I love the simplicity of the idea, but wish it was more accessible for younger kids. Having said that, it might just become mandatory for the Higher class!
November 12, 2007 at 6:28 pm
ah! Excellent! Your ‘difficulty level’ was 44! Phew, 50 is the hardest. I am only a mere 33 (middle of the road).
On the faq page, it describes that it will adjust the words to your own level dependant on how many you get right or wrong. So the pupils will get words suited to them!
I love links like this, although I can never figure out why I never get things done
November 12, 2007 at 6:35 pm
I have just tried it on difficulty level 1 where words such as ‘teenager’, ‘investigate’ and ‘choice’ are coming up. Looks like it will suit S1
November 12, 2007 at 7:33 pm
Krysia, thanks for that! I hadn’t looked closely enough to see that it had different levels!
I can see a new use for the PCs the next time my First years are in the library!
November 12, 2007 at 11:27 pm
Way hey! 49%, moi! (Smug or what?)
November 12, 2007 at 11:43 pm
I had such fun with this. And had to comment because I persevered until I got 50! By which time I had thousands of grains of rice
How self-satisfied am I?
Dorothy
November 13, 2007 at 12:34 am
Curses… so 50 is the highest, and it is possible to achieve it… there goes the rest of my preparation for the INSET I’m delivering on Thursday…
November 13, 2007 at 4:52 pm
Oh dear. Can’t resist a challenge – got 50 with 760 grains this time. I think I’m a child at heart …;-)
November 14, 2007 at 6:28 pm
This is well cool! My best so far is 30… and I’ve given 1000 grains!
This will keep me amused for a while.
November 14, 2007 at 9:31 pm
I liked freerice.com too, so I typed out a little firefox extension as a companion to the site. You might want to check it out if you use Firefox or Seamonkey.
http://ttechnotes.wordpress.com/2007/11/13/rice-count/
November 16, 2007 at 8:37 am
Thanks for all the comments folks. I’m going to be trying the site with some of my S3 Bloggers next week… Maybe even get a league table going!
October 15, 2008 at 9:30 am
[...] use my post as a chance to let you know about an update to the brilliant Free Rice website that I blogged about last November. For those who don’t already know, this is a site that asks you questions and every time you [...]