An “Irrational” Celebration

Not as big as Exhibition Day, yet still attracts as many students as Battle of the Bands, Pi Day is a very important holiday at SDA. The Math department arranges a celebration of pi(e) every year in which students get to showcase their pi memorizing skills, as well as participate in other fun activities.

In the pi digit reciting contest, students recited as many “pieces” of pi(e) as they could remember. Senior Cecilia Martinez recited the most– a whopping 233 digits. Martinez said she memorized this many in order to win contests, like this one. “I get free pie, and free gift cards. I can feed myself!” Martinez said.

One of the top pi-reciters was English teacher Ruth Magnuson’s nine-year-old son, Axel. He was able to recite 200 digits.

Another top contender was junior Moya Caulfield. She recited 100 digits, which she memorized in middle school. Caulfield said, “When I was in seventh and eighth grade, my math teacher had like 75 digits of pi on a poster all the way around the room and I got really bored in seventh and eighth grade math.”

Circling around the bell tower, math teachers stood behind tables offering students a chance to get gift cards. Students were given a stamp card, and they had to go to three different stations to play math themed games to earn stamps. Once they earned all three stamps, they were handed an envelope. A majority of the envelopes contained Chipotle ‘Free Entree’ cards, but some contained gift cards to Handel’s Ice Cream, Rico’s, Surf Brothers, and more.

One of the games the students had to do was a “3.14-legged race.” This was a very difficult task because they had to find a .14 of a leg to attach to themselves. Yet, students still managed to complete the task.

Math teacher Todd Vollstedt stood behind another station, pulling a picture of a circle out of one box, and an equation having to do with circles out of the other. If the student got the problem correctly, Vollstedt knew he taught them well, and gave them a stamp.

The final place to earn a stamp was the “Pi Day photo op” where students had to pose in the shape of pi with a partner. Math teacher Brittany Arechiga took their photos and stamped their cards.

Excited students with completed stamp cards crowded around math teachers Linda Parks and Paul Brice to receive a mystery envelope.

Also during lunch, the Japanese exchange students put on a dance performance on the PAC.