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Math Goodies: Celebrate Pi Day
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Activity Description
In this activity, students explore the meaning of Pi and to celebrate Pi Day through online activities. The mathematical constant Pi, sometimes written as Pi, is approximately equal to 3.14159... Each year, Pi Day is celebrated on March 14 by math enthusiasts around the world. Students engage in web-based inquiry to explore the meaning and history of Pi and calculations involving Pi.
Students also explore the history of Pi Day and how it is celebrated. There are several activities to celebrate Pi Day by engaging students in online activities of their own choosing. Links to resources on Pi and Pi Day are provided.
The lesson is divided into 4 steps:
- Learning About Pi
- Learning About the Meaning and History of Pi
- Learning About Pi Day
- Celebrating Pi Day All the steps for the lessons are included in the site.
Preparation
- Make sure that the site is not blocked at your school and that the lesson resources can be viewed or heard.
- Review the Lesson Process .
- Determine which activities you want to use
- Determine the number of computers available and how you will divide students into groups.
- Create a worksheet for students to record their findings.Be sure to include links to those sites you want students to review.
- Browse the lessons on circumference and area of circles.
- Decide if you want to conclude lesson with small pieces of pie for students. If so, you might ask for volunteers to bring pie.
Teacher Tips
Pie is nice conclusion to the activity. Please note that pie pieces can be cut very small.
More Ways
Read the resources and evaluation parts. There are interesting ways to involve the students in this lesson including songs, videos, and games. http://www.piday.org/
Program Areas
- ASE: High School Diploma
- ABE: Adult Basic Education
Levels
- Intermediate
- High
Lesson Plan
- Objective: To energize the class and create a comfortable environment for discussing mathematical concepts.
- Activity: Begin with a quick icebreaker where students share one interesting fact or favorite number, leading into a group discussion about the significance of numbers in everyday life.
Possible icebreaker:
- Go around the room.
- The Prompt: Ask each student to think of a number that is significant to them in some way. It could be their favorite number, the number of pets they have, their birthdate, or any number that holds personal significance.
- Sharing Out: Going around the room, each student shares their chosen number and explains why it’s significant to them. For instance, a student might say, "My number is 8 because I have eight people in my family."
- Discussion: After each student has shared, you can briefly discuss the variety of ways numbers impact our lives and link this to the day’s math lesson, highlighting the omnipresence and importance of numbers.
Objective: To provide students with a basic understanding of Pi and its role in mathematics.
Activity: Introduce the concept of Pi (π) through a short video that explains its mathematical significance and historical background. You may want the students to take notes to share during the presentation.
Objective: To deepen student understanding of Pi's historical and cultural relevance.
Activity: Utilize the interactive whiteboard to present the history of Pi, including its discovery and how it has been used throughout history in different cultures.
- Objective: To engage students in active learning by exploring and discussing content in a collaborative setting.
- Activity: Divide students into groups and assign them different segments of the Math Goodies website to explore topics such as the calculation of Pi, its mathematical properties, and how Pi is used in real-world applications.
- Tools: Computers/tablets, internet access, Math Goodies website.
- Objective: To assess students' understanding of Pi and their ability to communicate their knowledge creatively.
- Activity: Groups create a visual or digital poster summarizing what they learned about Pi and present it to the class.
- Objective: To apply mathematical knowledge in a fun, engaging context, and reinforce the day's learning with practical, hands-on activities
- Activity: Host a Pi Day celebration where students participate in Pi-related activities such as a Pi recitation contest, creating a Pi Day mural, and solving Pi puzzles.
- Optional: Conclude with serving pie slices to celebrate, with students helping to measure the circumference and area of their pie pieces.
Documents
- Math Goodies Pi Day Celebration.png - Screenshot of Math Goodies Pi Day Celebration
Subjects
- Math
- Geometry
Standards
- Geometry: Geometric Measurement and Dimension
- G.GMD.3 - Explain volume formulas and use them to solve problems.
Tags
Creative Commons License
