All about Pi

BY BRIAN BISHOP (STAFF WRITER)
Published: March 12, 2010

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Photo: N/A, License: N/A, Created: 2010:03:12 03:23:32

Review Photo/BRIAN BISHOP Noah Ackley (left) and Kevin Singhel measure a circle at Epiphany School. In back are John Misner and Ryan Canavan.

SAYRE - Some students at Epiphany School spent the day Thursday celebrating Pi.

Not apple or blueberry - but the irrational number representing the ratio of a circle's diameter to its circumference.

Pi Day is usually celebrated on March 14, Epiphany math teacher Kathy Donahue explained, but since that day falls on a Sunday, the school celebrated early. Students in grades 5-8 participated in the event, she said, with members of Epiphany's Math Club, which was formed this January, manning the various activity stations.

Pi day included a number of activities for the students, she said, including measuring circular objects, making posters incorporating the Greek symbol for Pi, a demonstration of "Buffon's Needle," a probability experiment that can be used to estimate Pi, and "Simon Says," wherein students repeated the numerals of Pi in a contest to see who could remember the most digits.

Students also decorated the hallway of the school with a paper chain with a digit of Pi written on each link, she said. Pi was written out to around 600 digits on the chain, she said.

Cathy D'Ortona, an advisor of the Math Club who said she is a member of the math faculty at Mansfield University and also has children enrolled at Epiphany, said the celebration, and Epiphany's math club, attempts to make math fun instead of rote and repetition. Pi Day teaches the students new applications of Pi, she said, and the activities tested their measuring and mathematical skills, as well as teaching them how errors in measuring or rounding can affect results.

The students also held a "dime drive" in connection with the event, with each grade challenged to bring in 314 dimes, with the proceeds being donated to mission funds. The fifth grade completed the challenge, D'Ortona said, and will receive a class reward.

Epiphany's Math Club currently includes students in the seventh and eighth grade, D'Ortona said, but could be extended to other grades in future years.

Brian Bishop can be reached at (570) 888-9652; or e-mail: bbishop@thedailyreview.com.

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