GUFS students show off their Pi shirts
Students celebrate math
The Garrison School recently sponsored a Middle School Math League Contest – a 30 minute assessment for grades 6-8. Winners were selected at each grade level based upon correctly answering the highest number of questions in the allotted time. Following are the 2012 Math League Contest winners:
In 8th grade, Matthew Hard received 1st Place honors; 2nd Place went to Marina Martin, Addie Westerhuis, and Frank Batignani; and 3rd Place to Sara Labriola. Among 7th graders, Jacob Hard won 1st Place, Xanni Vourliotis took 2nd Place and Kate Lisotta received 3rd Place honors. Finally, in the 6th Grade, Alex Mancuso won 1st Place, Alexandra Angelopoulos came in 2nd Place and Desi Young and Kaelin Martin finished in 3rd Place.
The Garrison School also recognized Pi Day, celebrated each year on March 14 because the beginning numbers of Pi are 3.14… Pi (π) is the symbol for the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter. Pi Day activities help students understand the concept of the number Pi. As part of the celebration, all of the classes listened to a Pi Day song and students brought in pies and other “goodies” decorated with the symbol of Pi. Garrison students also used their creativity to decorate t-shirts with the numbers of Pi on the back and other variations to wear on Pi Day.
Lastly, there was a Pi Day contest. Garrison Middle School students memorized the digits of Pi and recited all they could recall. This year the highest number of digits of Pi that were memorized was 78. The record at the Garrison School is 100 digits, which was set by current Garrison student, Matthew Hard 2 years ago. Following are the Pi Day contest winners:
In 8th grade, 1st Place went to Matthew Hard and 2nd Place to Luke O’Connor. In the 7th Grade (4th period class), 1st Place went to Colin Waldron and 2nd Place to Emma Parks. In the 7th Grade (5th period class), 1st Place went to Ethan Penner and 2nd Place to Isabelle Davis, and in the 6th Grade, 1st Place went to Alexa Gagnon and 2nd Place to Alex Mancuso.
“These challenges and celebrations help to make math fun,” said Garrison Math Teacher, Sevim Akhondzadeh. “But most important, the enjoyment encourages a higher level of student engagement and understanding of math concepts.”
Photo courtesy of GUFS
