Pi Day 2009

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Permalink Reply by suehellman on February 24, 2009 at 8:14am

Hi Elizabeth-- My last 3 blog posts have been about this with the latest being a project idea I worked on this morning in response to your question. Hope it sparks some dialogue. -SueH

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Permalink Reply by Kellie Kutkey on February 24, 2009 at 3:11pm

Hi, There are scads of things to do of course!!
I usually have them make pie (extra credit) for us to enjoy while working on a project from Archimedes, or the Babylonians.
Archimedes used inscribed and circumscribed polygons to approximate the value of the circumference of the circle, and from there to the value of pi . . . Nothing more than basic trig ratios, and the formula for the circumference of a circle is required.
The Babylonians got really close to "squaring the circle" with a circle of diameter 9 having nearly the same area as a square of side length 8 . . . so to create a visual of that, or to play around with 64 chips to see if they can arrange them neatly into a circle with diameter 9.
I can find my worksheets if you are interested . . . ?
Thanks for the question since I need to be thinking about it myself, as I also teach Honors Geometry.

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Permalink Reply by Mr. Langenhuizen on March 1, 2009 at 8:52am

Try this website it has some very creative ideas great for any grade level.

http://www.teachpi.org/activities/funwithdigits.htm

Or

If you're into webquests try this site

http://www.mathgoodies.com/webquests/pi_day/

Have a Happy Pi Day !O!

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Permalink Reply by Delaine Sanders on June 16, 2009 at 9:54am

Thank you! The mathgoodies site looks great! I appreciate any help making the class interesting!

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Permalink Reply by Jennifer Lawler on November 20, 2009 at 12:02pm

Here's a great activity for calculating Pi by throwing frozen hot dogs! Definitely something I would be doing with my students if I was still in the classroom.

How to Calculate Pi by Throwing Frozen Food
http://www.ehow.com/how_2164461_calculate-pi-throwing-frozen-food.html

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