March 14 is a day to celebrate a math constant that never ends! The beginning of Pi is 3.14, hence the day to honor it. Ironically, it is also Albert Einstein’s birthday! Have a STEM-tastic celebration with these calculated ideas:
- Write a pi-ku. Give a math twist to a traditional haiku (a poem composed of a 5-7-5 syllable pattern) by writing a poem with a 3-1-4 pattern.
- Eat round, pi-inspired foods. This is probably the most common way to celebrate Pi Day but can still be unique due to the overwhelming amount of round foods you can make. Pizza, pie, and round cake are all easy to start with. Add an extra challenge for math students by having them calculate the circumference and diameter of their round dishes.
- Organize a pie throwing or eating contest and up the ante by having everyone contribute $3.14 towards a prize pool.
- Watch a math-centered movie. A few popular examples are A Beautiful Mind, Good Will Hunting, and The Imitation Game.
- To incorporate math into your workout, walk or run 3.14 miles. Bonus points if you make it a circular trail!
- Take a deeper look at pi by writing out as many digits as you can and seeing if you can find significant numbers such as your birthday or the birthday of someone you know, a familiar zip code, phone number, or street number.
- Create pi art. This can be different from pi-themed foods. Make a pi sculpture out of clay, paint as many digits as you can onto a canvas, or have little ones make the pi symbol out of their favorite craft materials.
- Pass out round candy with pi trivia attached. Think peppermint patties, round chocolates, gumballs, truffles and lollipops.
- Since pi is an irrational number, do something irrational! Eat dinner for breakfast, wear a crazy outfit or walk in circles around the park while reciting as much of pi as you can.
- Have a Greek meal. Pi’s first calculation was done by Archimedes, a famous Greek mathematician during the 200s B.C. Try traditional Greek foods such as gyros and baklava.
