An In-Depth Look at This Year's Pi Day
NEIRAD enilno edition
Pi Day is the annual celebration of 3.1459 etc., the Euclidean marvel of mathematics that is as infinitely useful as it is infinite. Every March 14th (3.14 of course), DHS attempts to organize some kind of festivity to honor it.
In some places, Pi Day might just be a simple “holiday” that hinges almost entirely on the wonderful coincidence that pi is also the name of a dessert. But to the DHS faculty and community, it has become much more (while also embracing its math- and sugar-based roots). In recent years, fundraising has been introduced to Pi Day, through the beloved “throw a pie in a teacher’s face” contest.
The competition states that the teachers who collect the most charity money get a pie in the face from a student donator. This year’s teachers who won were Jennifer Chirles (pied by Sam Bryant and Zack McEwen), Steve Brooks (pied by Allison Wetterauw and Alex Schenck), Steve Coppock (pied by Ali McCann, Andrew Boe, and Martha Harris), Dan Haron (pied by Jimmy Ice), Kathy Kenny (pied by Will Weinstock, Sean Lee, and Tyler Gould), Mike Sullivan (pied by Ms. Kenny), Jackie Broomall (pied by Kate Ferguson and Pierce Whiting), and Laura DiStefano (pied by Hillary Conciatori and Morgan Whitehead).
Mr. Coppock described the fundraising competition for the pie-throwing as a great way for, “teachers and students to compete,” as well as a great way for both teachers and students to donate money to charities that they find important. Mr. Coppock did note; however, that when choosing which teacher to give money to, the name of the charity probably often took a backseat to, “ulterior motives,” chief among them the schadenfreudianpleasure derived from misfortune of others rush of throwing a pie into a math teacher’s face.
My lunch period (4th), saw the pie-ing of Mrs. Broomal, by Kate Ferguson and Pierce Whiting, and Miss DiStefano, by Morgan Whitehead and Hillary Conciatori. Mr. Sullivan emceed the event and provided the color commentary as pies were thrown (one missed and one connected), simply pushed onto the teacher’s faces, or pushed on and twisted for maximum damage. Observing students cheered on the pie-ing and everyone left thoroughly entertained.
An important part of Pi Day is the fact that it revolves around, “poetry, music, art, and trivia”, as much as math. Mr. Coppock claimed that a major goal of this year’s Pi Day was to, “get many other teachers involved,” in the activities and incorporate subjects other than math. He talked about how English classes might be assigned to write something involving the numbers of pi, and how for gym, Coach Chase had made “Pi Point Shots” in basketball (shots made a little farther back than 3 pointers). The annual music and poetry competition was a great success this year, the winner for best song being “Pi Day is Here To Stay” by Will Trautmann (which can be downloaded on the DHS website), and the winner for best poem being Ali McGarey for “3.14” (available for reading on the DHS website), in which the number of words in each line corresponds to the numbers of pi. The last and most easily noticeable creative facet of Pi Day is the music being played in between periods. The songs, from Don McClean’s “American Pie” to The Four Top’s, “I Can’t Help Myself (Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch)” all revolve around the theme of pie. The transition songs were implemented last year and they have been a big success, senior Matt Gentile claims he found the music, “really good, and very uplifting.”
The “trivia” aspect of Pi Day came into play during lunch shifts when some students got to compete in a competition to name the most digits of pi. 4th lunch saw a tense showdown between Claire Evanich and Laura Carroll, with Laura Carroll eventually taking the victory after several long minutes. One might ask, how much preparing goes into these digit-naming contests? For Claire Evanich, about “45 minutes to an hour” were spent memorizing 58 digits, the technique being to, “memorize them like a phone number”. For Laura Carroll, 2 weeks were spent memorizing an astonishing 207 digits of pi.
Was this year’s Pi Day a success? For this writer, absolutely. 2011’s Pi Day managed to uphold existing rituals (the transition music and art contests), and build upon relatively new ones, such as the “pie in the face” contest’s hugely successful fundraising spin; 11 charities, the American Cancer Society's Camp Adventure, Bennett Cancer Center at Stamford Hospital, Doctors Without Borders, Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, Stamford Animal Shelter, Jewish Community Living: Speedy Recovery for Joshua Dyer, Bridgeport Animal Shelter, National Children's Leukemia Foundation, American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, Humane Society of the United States, and Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, all received donations. A large amount of effort went into making it a good time for all, and Mrs. Broomall’s class, the Math Team, Miss Young, Mr. Brooks, Mr. Coppock, Mr. Haron, and Mr. Sullivan should all be thanked for their contributions to helping organize the events. Pi Day continues to be a day that, in the words of Miss Young, “brings our school together in a different kind of way. It’s a great way to have some fun and involve a little math.”
