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  • GMC high school cadets celebrated National Pi Day by racing throughout campus to solve mathematics problems dealing with pi. Contributed photo

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March 20, 2010

GMC students sprint through numbers as easy as pi

Vaishali Patel The Union-Recorder

MILLEDGEVILLE — As math geeks around the world celebrated March 14 as National Pi Day, the math department of Georgia Military College Prep School organized the “Amazing Pi Race” Thursday to commemorate the day.

GMC Prep School Math Teachers Cathy Williams and Andy Anderson and Math Department Chairman Linda Brown combined several activities engaging the mathematical intellect, the physical body and the character connection emphasized with GMC cadets.

“We always had individual celebrations and exposure to Pi Day within the classrooms. We decided [for the event] to be more GMC style to integrate character and intellect into one composite activity,” Williams said.

As 260 high school students worked in pairs, the race took off on Davenport football field where cadets worked through math problems dealing with pi. Once problems were worked correctly, students were directed throughout campus to complete various problems dealing with circles. The “Circle Challenges” began with hula hooping and ended with a dizzy bat obstacle course to the finish line.

“The students were very excited and several had their own personal competitions within the main race,” Williams said via press release. “The top team from each class were presented with a certificate and a bag of round candies for a job well done. It was very gratifying to see students get excited about being active, mentally and physically.”

Pi, approximately 3.14159, is the mathematical constant that represents the ratio of any circle’s circumference to its diameter. Since three, one and four are the first three decimal digits of pi, Pi Day is a holiday to celebrate the mathematical constant in the month/day format- 3/14. The United States House of Representatives passed a non-binding Resolution March 14, 2009 to recognize the day as National Pi Day to urge schools to take the opportunity to engage students with the study of mathematics.

“We decided to put together an effort to see if we could use this as a mechanism to increase awareness for math and science education,” Association for Competitive Technology President Jonathan Zuck said in an article on the CNET News Web site.

Williams said she hopes to celebrate the national holiday with her students annually, but no thought has yet been given to possible activities for the holiday in five years, where the March 14, 2015 (3/14/15) date will reflect five digits of pi rather than three.

“I’m sure we will continue to make the event bigger and better every year,” she said. “The students literally sprinted full force. They really took the challenge on and they were sweaty and laughing and really excited about learning. It’s a joy as a teacher to see students thrilled, and we still met performance standards while incorporating a lot of fun while doing so.”

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