Salmon Bay School (1810 NW 65th St) hosted their second annual Pi-Day celebration on Thursday night. Over 300 people attended and shared over 100 pies to celebrate the well-known mathematical symbol.
The national event is held each year on Pi-Day, 3.14 or March 14. Apart from the excitement of eating pie, the school celebrates the event to introduce families to fun of math through exploring out of school related math activities. “Math is much much more than what you experience on a test. There is a creative side to math, a way of thinking that is just as important as computation,” said Grade 6 Math Teacher Jon Olver.
During this year’s event families had the opportunity to explore math orientated table games and computer programs. They also had a chance to take part in activities organized by some after school math clubs including Chess Club, First Lego League, Programming Club, Origami and Raspberry Pi Club. “Pi-Night is really fun, you get to learn a lot of cool games, you get to meet new friends, and you get to eat pie,” said 3rd Grade student Abbi Russell.
Participants made their rounds through the different activities, receiving stamps for their “Pi-Passports”. Once their passport was complete participants were then eligible to enter the draw for pie and math related prizes donated by local retailers.
The finale of the event was a crowd-pleaser as 5th Grade student Saia Dugan won the opportunity to throw a “friendly” pie at Vice Principal, Brett Joachim’s face. “It is awesome to get the kids so excited about math – I would have a pie in the face everyday if it would help keep up this level of excitement,” said Joachim. Check out the pie throwing photo to the right!
Salmon Bay Parent and Pi-Night Coordinator Benjamin Black appropriately summed up the evening, “Pi-Night . . . it’s transcendental.”
Photos courtesy of Dana Riley.
