Thursday was March 14th, also known as Pi Day, and students at Ypsilanti Community Middle School joined in the fun by seeing who could recite the most digits of the irrational sequence.
It’s been a tradition for the last few years at the school to sell small pies to students and add the bonus of whipped topping if they can recite Pi to seven digits.
It was the brainchild of math intervention teacher Allison DeHaan.
“My first year here was the COVID year, and we were going to take a beautiful Pi Day picture. And unfortunately, we shut down right before Pi Day. So, the next year I went big, and now we’re selling pies to get kids to memorize the digits."
A sixth-grade student was able to recite 52 digits of Pi. The top of each grade won a Pi T-shirt and had their own pie to eat purchased by the school’s principal.
Educators say it often takes more than just listening to a teacher to get kids interested in learning. That was on display Thursday at Ypsilanti Community Middle School.
Not only were kids rewarded for being able recite seven digits of Pi on Pi Day, they were able to get a close up look at some exotic animals from a zoo in Belleville.
Principal Charles Davis Jr. says they will use any proper means to get their students to learn.
“What we really want to do is expose our students to every aspect of education. It’s really that simple. It’s real and being real changes everything.”
Students from all three grades were able to see the animals from a giant tortoise and a Siberian Lynx to a kangaroo and Nigerian dwarf goats. Those who earned more points through additional work were awarded with a more hands-on experience with the animals.
Non-commercial, fact based reporting is made possible by your financial support. Make your donation to WEMU today to keep your community NPR station thriving.
Like 89.1 WEMU on Facebook and follow us on Twitter
Contact WEMU News at 734.487.3363 or email us at studio@wemu.org
