Pizza, then Pi and finally Pies — What More Can You Want on Pi Day?

Looking up during π night --
above the activities in the entry foyer was a plethora of circles
beneath students are estimating the circumference of circles by feel
and estimating the number of circular objects in each jar.

Friday, March 14 was Pi Day (3.14). What better excuse is there to have a celebration of math with middle schoolers than π?     About three hundred fifty students, parents, teachers, and volunteers from the high school, PTA and community, celebrated π  at the East Somerville Community School (ESCS) by eating pizza for dinner, then spending an evening estimating, creating, collecting data, answering questions, and ending with pies for everyone and π pencils for the students. 

Drawing a cardioid or nephroid using straight lines.

After enjoying pizza donated by the Bickoff family (discounted by White Sport), the students from East Somerville, who were joined by students from Healey, Argenziano, West Somerville, Brown and Kennedy schools went around to a wide variety of math activities set up in the halls, foyers and auditorium.  These activities included: bicycle wheel roll, guessing contest, tooth pick drop (Buffon Needle problem), drawing a circle the size of a CD, mystery boxes, π button design, π facts quiz, birthday in π, circle in square vs square in circle, drawing cardiod or nephroid, drawing concentric circles by folding, drawing circles by tangents, drawing circle by right angles, reciting digits of π, predicting how high of a pour, predicting circumferences and radii, graphing circumference vs diameter.

Estimating how far a wheel will go on 1.5 and 2.5 rotations.

The event was planned by Scott Weaver (ESCS), Wil Jacques (Healey), Erica Voolich (Somerville Mathematics Fund) and Lindsay Garofalo (ESCS).  Table Talk Pies of Worcester generously supplied small pies for all who came that night and large pies for winners of events.  Table Talk has generously supported this Somerville Math Fund event for eleven years.  Star Market/Shaws (Beacon Street) generously donated most of the juice.

Estimating the number of pieces of round candy in the jar.

Pi Night was sponsored by the Somerville Mathematics Fund.  This year, East Somerville students returned to their rebuilt ESCS building after their long hiatus after the fire which had destroyed their school building.  It seemed appropriate for π night to also return to the ESCS building— the location of the original Somerville Math Fund Pi Night in 2003, planned by Wil Jacques, Mary McClelland, Colleen Murphy and Erica Voolich.

Estimating the volume and surface area
 of three different sized globes.

When planning the first SMF π Night, the Math Fund called the Table Talk Pi Company and explained what π day was and Table Talk generously donated large pies for prizes and small pies for everyone.  Eleven years later, Table Talk Pies is not only still donating to the the Somerville Pi night celebration, but to many more.   In fact, this year Table Talk donated 43,000 pies to schools celebrating pi day.

Students put "Happy π Day from Table Talk" stickers
 on the pies before the π night celebration.

A big thank you to all the volunteers and donors who made this fun, educational evening possible.  It takes a community to celebrate π day!

Pitching pennies to see which is the more difficult target
aiming for the space between the circle and the square. 

The Somerville Mathematics Fund, an affiliate of the national scholarship organization Dollars for Scholars.  They were founded in 2000 with the mission to celebrate and encourage mathematics achievement in Somerville MA.  In April they will be looking for applications for college mathematics scholarships.  For more information, www.somervillemathematicsfund.org or mathfund@gmail.com or call 617-666-0666.

Taking a quiz on π facts.

©Erica Dakin Voolich 2014

The link to this post is http://somervillemathematics.blogspot.com/2014/03/pizza-then-pi-and-finally-pies-what.html

Here's what we did for Pi Day at our school, the West Somerville Neighborhood School

by Annette Bassett

In grades 7,and 8, the students made key chains using gimp, then attached a length of beads color coded for the first 40 digits in Pi.
They are wearing them on their backbacks and jeans.

The 6th grade also made a Pi bead bracelet following a similar color code. They used a larger bead to begin Pi. The sixth grade also did a Pi activity using bagels and recited Pi poetry!

In the 7th and 8th grade math classes the teacher ran a Pi
trivia contest and did math problem solving activities with Pi. The
winners of the Pi trivia contest won a pizza pie. We also listen to
and watched, on the smart board, the music video; "Loose Yourself in
the Digits" by Pi Diddy. It depicts students at Vancover High School
during their Pi reciting contest. (The kids loved that!)

Then the entire 6th 7th and 8th grade student body had apple pie for dessert with their lunch, which was made by Somerville High School's culinary arts program!

As the CTL-Math, I facilitated the activities with the 6,7, and 8th grade teachers and support staff. A really fun day!

The Somerville Community Celebrates Pi Day

by Erica Dakin Voolich

At various schools around our city this year, Pi was celebrated a “day early” on Friday, March 13. Technically, Pi Day is March 14th (3.14), and to be more precise, March 14th at 1:59:26.

Students at the West Somerville Neighborhood School in 6th, 7th and 8th grade had activities related to Pi in their classes. The students in the Brown School 6th grade and the Kennedy School 6th through 8th made posters and tee-shirts, wrote and practiced skits or songs or raps and researched Pi in advance. Students kindergarten through eighth grade at the Argenziano School at Lincoln Park celebrated during the day. Finally, the day was capped off with middle students from East Somerville Community School at Cummings and from the Brown School joining the middle school students at Kennedy School (pictures) and numerous high school and community volunteers for an activity-packed family mathematics night (details) at the Kennedy School. The generosity of the Table Talk Pie Company made it possible for everyone, students, parents, teachers, volunteers to go home with their own small pie and the winners of activities to take home a full-sized pie. This final event was sponsored by and coplanned with The Somerville Mathematics Fund.

Among the activities at the Kennedy School Family Mathematics Night were
Displaying the posters created.
Wearing the tee shirts created.
Estimating the size of various circular objects (from the size of lids by feel only to the inside of circles on the gym floor to various balls).
Collecting Data on various targets (circle inscribed in square vs square inscribed in a circle) and toothpick drops (Buffon needle experiment).
Estimating the number of various circular things in jars.
Making Pi buttons to wear.
Finding personal dates of birth in Pi.
Taking a quiz on pi facts.
Predicting the distance a wheel would roll.
Drawing freehand a circle the size of a CD.
Graphing the diameter vs the circumference of a variety of circles.
Predicting volume in a cylinder.
Performing the skits and raps written.

Pi is an infinitely long number that lends itself to celebration by a collection of aficionados in many schools. It is one of those numbers, that even though you can’t possibly write out all of its digits, and for centuries they have been difficult to calculate, it’s basic concepts are simple enough to understand that it lends itself to celebrations on March 14 each year. Web sites are devoted to activities related to Pi for teachers to use and share and also to such π paraphernalia such as tee-shirts, cups, pins hats, etc. Scholarly articles and books along with story books have been written on Pi. This year congress passed a resolution supporting Pi Day and our local Congressman Capuano voted “yes” to encourage the celebration of this important mathematical holiday. Last year, even a local pie shop, Petsi Pies, got involved.

If you are interested in celebrating this holiday next year, contact me at voolich@aol.com. I’m sure there will be something mathematical happening.