The mathematical constant pi has an approximate value of 3.14 and is usually celebrated on March 14 at 1:59am for obvious reasons. Since the 14th of March this year fell on a Sunday, on March 19th, the CAISL middle school and high school came together to celebrate on, ironically, the same day as the Portuguese Father’s Day, or “Dia do Pai.”
The main event occurred at the beginning of the day in the atrium. All of the students were divided into 20 teams with a teacher assigned to each team. Math questions involving pi were projected onto a computer screen, one at a time. The questions alternated among questions for 6th and 7th graders, 8th and 9th graders, and 10th, 11th, and 12th graders. As Jeopardy! music played in the background, students solved and reported their answers using an electronic clicker. The winning team consisted of the students Mario Fernandez, Mariah Giusti, Martim Campos de Oliveira, Claudia Cianci, Núrio Custódio, Ricardo Sampaio, Francisco Bento, Catarina Tamen, Artur Oliveira Caracol, Matilde Cunha-Vaz, and Jack Wheeler.
Another event that was held was the pi-memorizing contest run by the NHS. The winner was Patricia Wu Jin who was able to recite 87 digits of pi. How insPIring! In addition, pies, the kind you eat, were brought in by students and teachers and auctioned off by Miss Lin to raise 200€ for Madeira.
Next up, pi day 2011!
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