Pi Day is 3/14, and I’m sure you’re planning to celebrate it in your classroom.
I’ve got a collection of links for you, all of which can be used spontaneously, without prep, in some little snippet of time left over during the day. Then, when you’re home with the family, you can pull out all the stops, bake pi(e)s, spend happy hours calculating, wear your special Pi Day outfits, take the annual family Pi Day photos… you know, the usual.
Here are some ways to celebrate:
- Visit the official website.
- Discovery Education also has a Pi Day page.
- Check out the Exploratorium’s Pi Day page, with poetry yet!
- Rebecca Rupp’s Pi Day Page includes links to pi issues in higher mathematics, including the pi vs. tau controversy.
- While considering pi poetry, don’t miss the Piku.
- Visit teachpi.org. This is one of the best places to track down the infamous PiRap.
- Bake a pi cake.
- Use food to calculate pi.
- Sing Pi Day songs. The link here isn’t necessarily the best Pi Day music, but it gets my vote because it refers to its songs as “carols,” and I totally love the idea of Pi Day carols.
- My favorite Pi Day song site.
- Pidayinternational has the coolest little video, and a virtual party for you to join.
- A bunch more Pi Day songs, of various kinds and qualities:
And I think we would all want to be certain that we do not forget to sing Trout Fishing in America’s immortal 18 Wheels on a Big Rig, a very good song which contains a pi verse.
Having sung and possibly also taught about pi, we can celebrate Albert Einstein’s birthday. Pi Day happens to be on Einstein’s birthday, or perhaps we should say that Einstein happened to be born on Pi Day. Pi begins with 3.14, making 3/14 Pi Day. But Einstein’s birthday is also worth celebrating.
Here are some of our favorite Einstein links:
- Einstein’s Big Idea This Nova page has links to lots of background information and experiments.
- Here is a PhysicsQuest assignment on Einstein. It’s all complete — just send the kids to the computer.
- The AIP Center for the History of Physics exhibit on Einstein includes a brief version if you’re in a hurry.
- Here is a PBS interactive site on Einstein.
It would be a great day to eat pie for Pi day and cake for Einstein’s birthday, check out a few of these sites on the classroom computer, sing some pi songs, and send the kids on their way inspired and refreshed by some of the world’s Big Ideas.
