Have you heard of Freerice? The first I heard about this new website was from the legend that is Kristian Still (you can follow him on twitter @kristianstill) you can read his blog post on Freerice here: http://kristianstill.co.uk/wordpress/2010/09/20/freerice-ideas/
If you read Kristian’s post then you can see some fantastic ideas on how to use this. One of the teachers from saltash.net has been trying it out over the last week or two and this is what Alex thinks of it:
“It is an excellent tool to improve literacy, chemistry, foreign languages, maths, art or geography especially using it for the starters to a lesson or as a fun activity to break up a double lesson with a group of students as a break in between the lesson and to refocus them in their learning. I daresay the students would love to use it for a whole lesson, such has been their enthusiasm towards it! I have used the free rice website in lessons and have found it to be an extremely rewarding activity. Both KS3 and KS4 react well to the challenges posted as they appreciate the fact that they are actually helping to feed hungry people around the globe.
My personal favourite is the geography challenge where you have to name the country – the competitive edge to the tool has created some fantastic energy to the lessons.”
Alex has set up a school group and is now running an extra-curricular club focusing on this, he is then currently planning to introduce Freerice to the whole school through a series of assemblies looking at poverty and hunger throughout the world.
There is also a bbc news article on it here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-11218557
Are you using Freerice – would you like to set up some interschool competitions?