Spanish Immersion seventh-graders Ana Slade, J’Lee Long and LiAnna Freeman use pi (3.14) to determine the volume of a cylinder as teacher Lora Mora Munoz looks on. Understanding pi (3.14) – described as “the most fascinating number in the history of the world” -- would be hard enough for many, let alone in Spanish. But it wasn’t that difficult for seventh-graders at the Spanish Immersion School who celebrated Pi Day on Thursday, albeit one day late.
Pi is a mathematical constant equal to the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter. In other words, all the way around a circle divided by all the way across it.
Pi Day is
observed annually on March 14 (03/14) but snow prompted a two-hour delay to the
start of school on Wednesday and reduced class time for the rest of the day.
Teacher Lora Mora Munoz thought it best to wait a day so that her 10 students
could have a full math class to solve challenges involving pi.
Speaking
entirely in Spanish, she divided the class into three groups and explained the tasks
for each.
“All of the activities are related to pi,” Munoz explained in English as students began to work. “They will measure cylinder shapes or circles to find volume, circumference or diameter.”
The
fascinating aspect of pi, the 16th letter of the Greek alphabet, is that it is an irrational number that is approximately 3.14. Computers have added more than 22 trillion digits to the right side of the number without determining pi’s absolute value.
How’s that again? Let the website FiveThirtyEight explain:
“Pi is a mathematical constant equal to the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter – C/d. It lurks in every circle, and equals approximately 3.14. But the simplicity of its definition belies pi’s status as the most fascinating, and most studied, number in the history of the world. While treating pi as equal to 3.14 is often good enough, the number really continues on forever, a seemingly random series of digits ambling infinitely outward and obeying no discernible pattern—3.14159205358979 … That’s because it’s an irrational number, meaning that it cannot be represented by a fraction of two whole numbers.”
Spanish
Immersion Principal Gabe Costa was in the classroom to watch students making
their calculations. While Pi Day has been a classroom activity in recent years,
Costa envisions a possible larger observance next year.
“Maybe we could look at having a school-wide Pi Day, an evening program involving families,” Costa said. “The Richland County Foundation and the Rupp family have been so helpful to us with such activities. Maybe we could celebrate pi by serving pie.
“Who wouldn’t come to school for pie?”