Last Wednesday was a monumental day for math teachers all around the world. It was Pi (3.14 or the date 3/14) Day. My 11 students were excited because I had been talking about it for quite some time. The middle and high schoolers were going to put on an event for the whole school. They spent a week of class in preparation of Pi Day. The middle schoolers wrote funny stories about Pi and the high schoolers wrote raps about Pi. They cut colored strips of paper to make a link chain representing the never-ending number. They calculated Pi by throwing sticks on the ground, counting how many landed on predetermined lines, and threw it into an equation. Students even created coloring sheets for the younger kids involving the symbol for Pi. We even had pie (cake) to eat for the special occasion. The day came and they were ready. They flawlessly held an event for 30 1st-5th graders having stations and completing all of the Pi activities they had prepared. I was amazed at how well they followed directions and directed the younger students. I was especially proud of my two HS students who wrote amazing raps about Pi. Here they are :-)
Jeff:
let lets talk about Archimedes
he was mathematical
never did anything that was practical
so rational that he invented a number
that was international
Pi lets talk about
but don't start a riot
infinite but it have a definite point
very interesting
why you gotta think it that
why cause it amazing
just think about it all
these numbers will have you dazing
pi equal the circumference over the diameter
why does it matter?
because equation sounds more like
a persuasion to me
Luke:
Dude listen Pi is very simple
wanna hear an example
let's grab some sample of a couple numbers
wait stop imma be out numbered
you can do it
lets starts at 3.14
that sounds a little fluid
just keep going
i think we about to do this
this is very restless
how about we test it
