Food-Force

Win 98, Win XP, Mac

Teaches: social studies, science, memory, math, food, diplomacy

CTR Review

Designed to promote the activities of the UN's World Food Program (WFP), this is a well designed, free, 200 MB downloadable program for Mac or Windows computers. It is fun enough for kids to want to play at home, yet certainly educational enough to fit into any school science and/or social studies curriculum. In the game, you take on the role of a rookie aid worker en route to the fictitious island of Sheylan, where a drought has created a civil war, leaving thousands of starving people. There are six race-the-clock missions� you learn that time is your worst enemy when people are starving� interspersed with actual video footage of WFP in action. Good work earns a high score, which can be uploaded to the companion web site. In the first mission, you survey the population by steering a helicopter. Next, you make energy packs (pictured) by balancing ingredients (oil, sugar, salt and rice). The third mission is a food drop, where wind speed and drop zones must be considered in order to earn a high score. Mission four is a bit pointless - you are supposed to fill in a food grid by purchasing rice, beans and oil from around the world - it is possible to get a passing score by guessing. The fifth mission, Food Run, involves driving trucks, changing flat tires, building bridges, sweeping for mines and negotiating with armed rebels. In the last mission, you take on the role of a diplomat to disperse food to a village in a balanced way, so that you can support the schools, hospitals, and encourage soldiers to become farmers. The companion website (www.food-force.com) provides a place for kids to post high scores, and there are lesson plans for teachers. This is a shining example of how an educational simulation can entertain and teach at the same time, but more interesting is the distribution model. We found the game easy to download, but hefty, taking 45 minutes on a 512K DSL connection.