Mike Z sent me a really a great link that will allow you to use your geek powers to feed the world. The site is called FreeRice. When you enter FreeRice, you get a math question like 13 * 5. If you answer the question correct, you have just donated 5 grains of rice to the UN World Food Program. You can play as long as you want, so fill up your bowl. If you get tired of math questions, you can always switch to something else like vocabulary words or chemical symbols. Who pays for all that rice? I just filled up a bowl and my sponsors were World Hunger Relief 2008, Unilever, and a private donor. Pretty cool, huh. Thanks, Mike!
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4 comments:
Thanks for the info on another way to help the hungry. I plan on including the same info on my blog, Ethic Soup.
I'd much rather have the hungry chew on rice than have math students chew on gum, thinking that it'll make them smarter. That's what Wrigley would have us believe. Chew on this -- Wrigley paid for research with findings that chewing gum in class makes teens smarter in math!
The "Wrigley Science Institute" (puh-leez!)funded research by Baylor University of Medicine in Houston. And guess what? Why, they found out that kids get smarter when chewing Wrigley's sugar-free gum. They studied four math classes, 108 students aged 13 to 16 years old from a Houston charter school that serves mostly low-income Hispanic students. The gum-chewers did 3 percent better( they say that's significant) on the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills achievement test. BUT they did not get smarter when they took the Woodcock Johnson III Test of Achievement. Aounds like whether gum makes kids test better depends upon the test, not the gum chewing.
Sponsored (read: paid for) studies invariably produce results favorable to the economic interests of the sponsor. Wrigley wants to sell more gum! And if it could end the days of gum being considered contraband in the class room, they would make lots more money.
Ethic Soup has a good article on this at:
http://www.ethicsoup.com/2009/05/chew-on-this-wrigley-research-claims-gum-makes-teens-smarter.html
Sharon McEachern
Thanks, Sharon. I never even heard that about chewing gum. It does sound like there is a conflict of interest in the research. Great link!
Hendree -- As promised, here is the url for the post I wrote on FreeRice following your lead. Thanks!
http://www.ethicsoup.com/2009/05/free-rice-to-feed-the-hungry-just-play-free-internet-games-.html
Hopefully, others will continue to write posts until everyone is aware of this unique website and the grains of rice donated grow exponentially.
Sharon McEachern
Thanks, Sharon. Great post!
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