Blessed Sacrament School celebrates Pi Day
Event helps make math fun while students learn about the ratio that’s used in so many math, science and engineering formulae
(SAVANNAH) March 12, 2010 – You might not remember any of the formulae you had to use it in, but you probably remember the name and maybe even the symbol: Pi, or 3.14159. It is mathematics’ equivalent to a rock star, popping up in popular culture and used in many formulae from mathematics, science and engineering.
Blessed Sacrament is celebrating Pi day March 12 from 10 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. Pi day, of course, is March 14 (3.14), but since that’s a Sunday this year, the students are celebrating it Friday.
Pi or π is a mathematical constant whose value is the ratio of any circle’s circumference to its diameter. (This is the same value as the ratio of a circle's area to the square of its radius.) It is approximately equal to 3.14159 in the usual decimal notation. Pi is one of the most important mathematical and physical constants: many formulae from mathematics, science and engineering involve π.
The middle school BSS students will visit several stations that include everything from math computation questions to a Hula Hoop contest. Students will bring in circular desserts.
To decorate, the students cut the Greek symbol for pi out of poster board, then wrote the value for pi (3.14) all over the cutout. They also decorated tablecloths by drawing the value all over tablecloths.
“It’s great to be able to make math fun,” said middle school math teacher Julia DeLoach. “They’re learning so much while they’re enjoying themselves.”
In one station’s math question, the children have to figure out the following question (using pi, of course): A man has a yard that measures 40 feet by 60 feet. He will install a circular swimming pool in the middle of the yard that has a diameter of 30 feet. What is the area of the yard where he will need to lay sod after the swimming pool is installed?
Blessed Sacrament School was founded in 1939 with two classrooms and three sisters of Mercy as the first faculty. Today there are two sections of each grade level from Pre-K through 8th grades with a current enrollment of approximately 425 students. The school offers a rigorous, faith-based academic program and maintains small class sizes. Blessed Sacrament is part of the Catholic Diocese of Savannah and has received accreditation by both SACS (Southern Association of Colleges and Schools) and FCC (Florida Catholic Conference).
