At Sierra Bonita Elementary in Spanish Fork Utah, the STEM/Music Specialty teacher, Mrs. Amy Van Dyke, has put on a Pi digit competition for the last 5 years for the 3rd, 4th and 5th graders. This fun competition inspired kids to memorize as many pi digits as they could to earn a pie. The top winners get a large pie and a little pie of their choice, and the other participants who memorize a base amount per grade get a small pie - 30 digits for 3rd grade, 40 digits for 4th grade and 50 digits for 5th grade. 30-40 kids participate each year.
Mrs. Van Dyke spent the first two weeks of March in STEM class doing activities with Pi and circles. The younger grades (K-3) do art and activities and inventions with circles, pies and fractions of those things. The older grades 4-5 actually learn what pi is, where it comes from, and what circumference and diameter mean, etc. and do investigation with those things and the history of Pi Day. Mrs. Van Dyke is one of those special teachers that goes the extra mile, knows how to make everything fun and inspires kids to enjoy learning and doing something they would have never done without her challenging them.
This year, the winners are:
1st: Elise Roberts (5th Grade) with 360 digits
2nd: Poppi Garns (3rd Grade) with 236 digits
3rd: Brooklyn Longhurst (3rd Grade) with 200 digits
The record that we can see online is around 285 for a 10-year-old. The pi world ranking at 295th place as recorded in www.pi-world-ranking-list.com.
We love Mrs. Van Dyke for making pi day an exciting thing for kids at Sierra Bonita Elementary.
All participants will get a small pit. They all memorized at least 50 digits of pi which is amazing! Other winners include:
William Carter (3rd Grade)
Matix Fox (3rd Grade)
Summer James (3rd Grade)
Hailey Robertson (3rd Grade)
Zoie Smith (3rd Grade)
Michael Chapman (4th Grade)
Elise Roberts (5th Grade)