March Mega Kind Madness and Freerice.com...

Now that it is March, there is a little thing known as March Madness going on. It can definitely be fun to get into making brackets and all that goes along with the basketball frenzy, but I got to thinking: wouldn't it be amazing if we could create a grassroots movement to bet on or donate to organizations that are truly doing some good in the world?

I propose that we turn the month of March into "March Mega Kind Madness." Every Wednesday in March, I will be sharing information about humanitarian charities that I've deeply researched and found to be doing a ton of good in the world. I'm going to be following this up on Wednesdays in April with features on planet-saving non-profit organizations to help celebrate Earth Month and I would love for all of you to read, share, and donate what you can!

To get us started, I'd like to introduce you to a website and newly released app called Freerice. This hunger-ending game is sponsored by the World Food Programme, based in Italy. I discovered this site about 12 years ago as an undergrad and immediately fell head over heels for it. Since then, it has been turned into an app and I not only use it myself every day, I have my students play on it several times a week as well.

What is it? How does it work? It is a super fun free learning game that donates rice (and other staples based on geographic location and dietary needs per region) to hungry people. All you need to do to get started with this game is go to freerice.com or download the FreeRice app in your app store. You can set up a profile and then get to playing.

They have 25 different games you can play within the categories of: Global Goals, English, Geography, Humanities, Language Learning, Math, and Science. I like to use the English Grammar, English Vocabulary, and Multiplication Table games with my students, because it helps them to learn while donating 10 grains of rice for each question that is answered correctly. The WFP considers about 1000 grains to be a full serving, so I like to both challenge myself to play to 1000 grains and get my students playing up to 1000 grains every time they play. I also like to have students do an "Around-the-World" challenge with these games to increase competition. They get really into it and feel quite proud of themselves when they reach 1000 grains and know that they have helped someone.

With the app, you can earn badges for number of questions answered correctly in a row, days played in a row, and for reaching certain thresholds of donations. It is a fun way to increase competition a bit more and get even more grains donated. The donations are all paid for by sponsored ads that pop up at the bottom of the screen whenever a question is answered correctly. Oh, and if a question is answered incorrectly, they have fun little motivational graphics of a smiling rice bowl with encouragement to keep trying. If the game gets too tough, you can always reset the level to one that is a bit easier to practice until you get really good at it!

I hope that y'all will jump on board with me for my grassroots "March Mega Kind Madness" and will take a look at Freerice! If you do, drop me a comment with your favorite subjects to play!