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Pi Day Assembly at Edison Middle Schools Brings Laughs and Gaffes
WEST ORANGE, NJ – Edison Middle School may take Pi Day very seriously, but they sure have a lot of fun doing it. There were laughs aplenty as the annual Pi Day Assembly not only crowned a new Pi memorization champion, but turned several teachers and staff members into apple pies.
Math teacher Eric Mains has organized the event for the past few years and with the help of the EMS Math Club.
“The Edison Math Club hosted a variety of fun activities during the week of March 13 in honor of Pi Day on March 14, “said Mains, “and the purpose of these activities was to raise students' awareness of pi and its relation to mathematics and the world.”
Pi Day is celebrated worldwide. The Greek letter Pi is the symbol used in mathematics to represent a constant — the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter — which is approximately 3.14159. Pi has been calculated to over one trillion digits beyond its decimal point.
To kick off the March 17 assembly, six students finalists competed to see who memorized the most digits of Pi. The finalists were Devin Kittur, Jackson Pruksarnakul, Anya Steigbigel, Adriana King, Asad Hall, and Kayden Tilus.
Jackson Pruksarnakul broke the all-time school record of 350 by memorizing 420 digits. Devin Kittur memorized 207, Anya Steigbigel 90, and Adriana King 54.
Students held competitions throughout the week,” continued Mains, “to see who knew pi best by memorizing the most digits of pi… a challenging feat since there is no easy pattern within the digits!”
Prior to the assembly, students purchased raffle tickets for the opportunity to “Build a Pi on a Teacher’s Head.” Four winners from each EMS team were selected to build apple pies on Mr. Mains, Ms. Norcia, Ms. Carsten, Mr. Wasko (Grey team), Mr. Carrera, Ms. DeMatteo, Ms. Morales, Mr. Ntoufas (Yellow team), and Mr. Tillman, Mr. Azzato, Ms. Cocchiere, and Mr. Rodriguez (Green team).
The money raised will be donated to the Holy Trinity-West Orange Food Pantry.
Front (L-R) Anya Steigbigel, Devin Kittur. Rear (L-R) Jackson Pruksarnakul, Asad Hall, and Adriana King.