For Immediate Release

Thursday, March 14, 2019

Contact: Jessica Sacco
Phone: 617-993-0003
Email: [email protected]

Greater Lowell Tech Students Celebrate Pi Day with Pie Project

TYNGSBOROUGH — Greater Lowell Technical High School students showcased their creativity (and love for pie) in recognition of Pi Day this week.

Pi Day is celebrated on March 14 around the world. Pi (Greek letter “π”) 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.

For the last two years, to help students engage in fun activities surrounding Pi Day, Worcester-based Table Talk Pies has donated 480 snack-size pies to GLTHS. Math teacher Nicole Gilford previously bought more than 100 additional pies from the company for Pi Day, until Table Talk became aware of her educational efforts and donated the pies.

Before eating the pies today, the GLTHS math club wanted to do something fun with them, so they gathered in the gym on March 12 to illustrate as many decimal points as possible. Sophomores Patrick Sexton, of Dracut, and Thu Do, of Lowell, along with freshman Abbey Gingras, of Dracut worked hard to calculate how many digits of Pi they could create and how much space was needed to do it. They were able to draw out Pi to the 44th decimal and a Pi symbol across 75 feet.

Watch a video of students building out Pi here.

“Students really took the lead on this activity and had a great time looking at Pi from a different angle,” Gilford said. “Thank you to Table Talk Pies for their donation to GLTHS this year, which is what made this activity possible.”

Since its inception three years ago, the math club continuously provides opportunities for students to engage in hands on activities, like with Pi Day, and regularly attends competitions to test members’ knowledge in a number of different areas related to the subject.

Some of the pies will also be used for a Math 24 Game tournament on March 19. 24 Game uses a card with four numbers on it and requires participants to make the number 24 — by adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing. The competition consists of four rounds and the student who can come up with the most equations, wins.

“It’s a simple, yet competitive game that gets the students thinking and actively participating in math,” Gilford said. “Our first competition we had 77 students attend, which is the highest number of participants we’ve ever had for a math competition, and we hope to double that number on March 19!”

The competition will take place in the Greater Lowell High School cafeteria at 2:15 p.m. and is free for anyone who would like to attend. Winners will receive gift cards that can be used at GLTHS and a medal.

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