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On March 14th of every year, our school, like many, celebrate Pi Day.
Signs were posted around the school to celebrate pi (and Albert Einstein’s birthday - we even had a look-alike contest). Teachers throughout the school did different activities that involved circles, diameters, radii, and pi. The event is a nice way to build community throughout the building.
In the 7th grade geography class, students worked with continent’s population. After quickly drawing circles to represent their perceptions of each continent’s comparative population, students found the actual populations. They then worked with diameter, radius, and area to draw appropriate circles to represent population.
When arranged in their appropriate spots in relationship to one another on the globe, the students had a simple cartogram.
Displaying the population data in this visual manner made a great learning opportunity for the students. They remarked how Asia’s great size compared to the other continents was striking - they knew it would be the largest, but not by that much. They were also surprised that Australia was so small and that Africa was as large as it was.
A simple activity to help celebrate Pi Day, and math, allowed students the opportunity to gain new-found understandings to better understand the world.
If your students took part in some engaging Pi Day activities, or if this post has generated some thoughts of your own, please share in the comments. I would appreciate hearing about them.
