Free Rice is a fantastic web site offering multiple choice quizzes within a broad variety of subjects. With each correct answer, Free Rice donates ten grains of rice to the UN World Food Program. The quizzes can be addictive as players test their knowledge and move to higher levels, but what makes the site uniquely motivating is that players see a bowl of rice fill up as they answer correctly and know they are making a direct impact to help others. Players can choose a level, and the quizzes adapt based on questions answered correctly or incorrectly. Students should learn from their mistakes, since when a player gets a question wrong, the correct answer is displayed and the content is retested a few questions later. However, there is no built-in instruction provided for teaching the material.

Free Rice can serve a variety of academic needs, including motivating vocabulary or math practice, learning facts related to literature, art and geography, foreign language practice, chemistry facts and even SAT test preparation. Since there are so many options, it is likely that all students will find a suitable subject and participate in donating rice. The screen layout is relatively busy, but Free Rice explicitly reminds users that the advertisements on the site pay for the rice.

• Provides sufficient and varied types of practice problems to maximize understanding and generalization of the targeted skill/concept
• Manufacturer claims alignment with Common Core/Known Standards
• Presents educational concepts accurately
• Explains answers so students can learn from mistakes
• Better for teaching the skill to new or struggling learners
• Better for practicing or refreshing the skill
• Skills are practiced through authentic, meaningful problems (not just rote practice)

• Appropriate for a broad age range to use and enjoy
• Subject matter and problems are relevant, interesting and authentic to students
• Visually appealing to children in the target age range
• Provides virtual rewards or incentives after meeting specified goals or objectives
• Provides a "break activity" between academic problem sets
• Offers ongoing, progressive challenge
• Overall - Enjoyable. Given the option, students would choose this option

• Has a free or trial version
• Provides teaching guidance for adults to support the child and set appropriate goals
• Provides an age-appropriate tutorial/first time users can work independently
• Student should be able to use independently after first use
• Has a multi-player option to foster in-person collaboration or cooperation
• Multiple users can save a profile
• Student graduates to the next level or topic only after meeting a benchmark
• Can play without sound and not distract others
• Students can save work between sessions
• Can effectively understand and monitor student's progress (email report or in product)
• Requires registration before using the first time
• Provides options to play in languages other than English/Good for ELL
• Presents information in multiple formats (voice over, pictures and text, etc.)
• Overall - Easy to use

• Reading Basics
• Includes long written questions or text that students must be able to read on their own
• Visual Discrimination
• Shows advertisements
• Visually distracting with too many pictures, problems or moving objects
• Vocabulary
• Assumes specific knowledge or vocabulary without "look-up" options