Susan O'Rourke | March 4, 2024
On March 14th, people across the globe unite to celebrate a shared history and common language: mathematics! 3/14 is celebrated both as “Pi Day” and International Day of Mathematics around the world.
Celebrating Pi Day/International Day of Mathematics in school creates opportunities to infuse global perspectives into activities across subject areas. Whether by teaching the global history of mathematical studies, bringing global flavors to the culinary classroom celebrations of pi, or even studying how students around the world are commemorating Pi Day/International Day of Mathematics, educators can help bring a slice of the global mathematics community right into their classes.
The 2024 theme for International Day of Mathematics is “Playing with Math.” Organizers invite students and educators to “celebrate mathematical games, puzzles and other entertaining activities, but also [to play]’ with mathematics itself, [by] exploring, experimenting, and discovering.”
The organizers also encourage students and educators to take a global perspective in a few ways:
- By “[adding their] 2024 International Day of Mathematics celebration to [a shared] map” for others around the world to see.
- By integrating world language studies and thinking about the theme’s meaning in different languages. Organizers explain that “[in] some languages the verb play means other things, like “performing” and instrument, or “acting” in a theater… [Reflect on what] other ideas….the theme [brings] to people’s minds in your language….when planning activities for your celebration.”
- By participating in the 2024 Creative Challenge: “to add mathematics to an everyday thing or place and share a photo of your creation.” Educators and students can get inspired by checking out mathematical images created by students from around the globe here and the work of “Street Math” artists.
This day also creates an opportunity for collaboration across subject areas and showcasing how interdisciplinary mathematics can be! Check out some of the opportunities to celebrate Pi Day/International Day of Math in your classrooms!
- Indigenous Studies: Check out this series of lesson plans that examine “the mathematical and computer modelling of traditional stone-fish traps, a customary way of harvesting fish that Indigenous people use across the Pacific North-West region.” The lesson, “Small Number and the Big Tree – Classroom Guide,” for example, includes a discussion of Pi as well as Indigenous “cultural components.”
- Art: Have students study artists’ visualizations and interpretations of Pi, from that the 19th century to contemporary interpretations created by artists from around the world. You might also invite students to create cityscapes from around the globe based on the decimals of Pi.
- CTE: Consider inviting students to research—and even bake—pies from around the world.
- ELA: Invite students to study “pilish,” a genre that calls on authors “to write in such a way that each digit of pi denotes the number of letters in each word” within a composition (such as a poem or story). Students might try their hand at writing “pikus,” “the name for a poem in Pilish – based on the Japanese haiku.”
- Foreign Languages: Check out the activities provided for the International Day of Math (March 14th, or Pi Day) shared by International Mathematical Union. Activities are shared in different languages including Arabic, Chinese, French, German, Greek, Portuguese, Turkish, and Ukrainian.