Pi Day is a National event celebrating the mathematical constant pi. It is celebrated on March 14 because 3, 1, and 4 are the dominant digits of pi in decimal form. Pi Day was established in 1988 by Larry Shaw, who celebrated it at the San Francisco Exploratorium, where he was a Physicist. He celebrated Pi Day with his staff, and they marched around one of the Exploratorium’s circular spaces, and then they all ate fruit pies.

On March 12, 2009 the U.S House of Representatives publicly supported the designation of March 14 as Pi Day. Today, schools and other institutes all over the country celebrate Pi Day in many different ways, but here at Padua Academy, we don’t just celebrate Pi Day, but Pi Week.

All week long during Flex Time, students were welcome to drop by room 308 and participate in a Pi Activity. Completion of a Pi Activity approved by a teacher earned students extra credit in whichever mathematics course they happen to be taking. There was a new activity to partake in every day. On Monday, the Pi activity was to calculate pi. On Tuesday, students ‘strung pi’ which meant that they used colorful wire and put colorful beads onto the wire, each color representing a digit in pi. Then the two ends were tied together and students could make a bracelet out of it. On Wednesday the activity was Pi Paper Chain. Students made small paper chains, which each individual chain representing a part of Pi. The idea is that once everyone strung together their miniature paper chains, they could string all the little chains to make one very big Pi Paper Chain. On Thursday the activity is Pi Trivia, where students answer questions about Pi. The different activities were worth between one and two extra credit points. All in all Pi day was a success enjoyed by all of Padua.