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Easy as Pi
STudents celebrate national Pi Day with pie
By Denise Dick
POLAND
They brought in apple pie, chocolate chip cookie pie, chocolate pudding pie, cherry pie and pancake pie.
The table along the side of Jean Wargo’s classroom at Holy Family School looked like the dessert table at a family gathering or church social. But it all had a more educational purpose.
Friday was National Pi Day, a celebration of math, so named because the numbers in the date — 3/14 — correspond to the first three digits of pi — 3.14.
The total number of digits in pi, the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter, is endless.
Sixth-, seventh- and eighth-graders in Wargo’s classes at the school have been observing Pi Day for about 10 years.
Each student brings in something to share with the class: a pie, water, plates,
silverware. While they indulge in the sweet treats, they work on math problems related to both pie and pi.
“It falls into the Common Core Standards that they need to know for sixth, seventh and eighth grade,” Wargo said. “Hands-on is always better.”
It’s also something students look forward to each year.
Seventh-grader Daniel McClellan, 13, said students first learn about pi in sixth grade.
“It’s used to measure the area and diameter of a circle,” he explained.
Students volunteered to see who could recite, from memory, the most digits of pi.
The first 500 digits were projected on the classroom wall so their classmates could follow along.
In the seventh-grade class, Stephen Babik, 12, had the most with 13 numbers.
“I practiced a lot,” he said.
Several eighth-graders stepped up to the challenge, but Katrina Hayes, 14, walked away with the win for the second year, reciting 41 numbers. Last year, she memorized 120.
Wargo awards each class’s winner with a $5 Handel’s gift card.
The biggest hit of the day though, was the pie. Students lined up for seconds and even thirds when allowed.
Wargo’s classroom, with bakery smells wafting into the hallway, was popular among the rest of the school’s faculty Friday, too.
In 2009, Congress passed a resolution making March 14 National Pi Day, and Princeton University has an annual party marking Pi Day and Albert Einstein’s birthday. He was born March 14, 1879.