π-rate Pi Day
For students to do this activity, they will need to be able to plug numbers into equations at shout things like “scurvy dog”!
Objective
Avast! Through ye old objects, imagery, and some silliness, help the wee scurvy land lubbers see the impARRRRtance of pi on the high seas...
Preparation
This theme's recommended preparation is two weeks. Its minimum prep time is two days. 2 weeks-2 days before Pi Day
Buried Treasure: If you are going to do the buried treasure activity, you will need to pick a spot
(outside, perhaps) where there can be multiple steps in their search. The easiest way to record the path you take to get to the treasure is to us a GPS device (I don't have one, but have found that it is pretty easy to find one to borrow). A compass also works great—just keep track of your paces. I suppose that, depending on the terrain at your school, you could use Google Maps to create the path...
Step One: Pick a starting point. Record the latitude and longitude of the starting point. On the
worksheet that you will hand to the kids, it will have the name of the starting point (e.g. the spooky pine tree) and the longitude and latitude.
Step Two: Pick your next point. If you have a compass, mark your bearing and set out a given
number of paces. If you have a GPS, just walk to the next point and note the latitude and
longitude.
Step Three: Repeat step two until you have the number of steps that you want. (I have done as
many as 10 steps. That, in my opinion, is a little long. It will depend on the make-up of your classroom.)
Step Four: Bury the treasure! (Shameless plug: Our Pi Day Survival Kit has some great π-rate
booty.)
Don't forget to get permission on “burying” your treasure. Also, don't be surprised if they don't actually let you bury it. :) You will probably need to carefully hide it somewhere (still get permission).
Step Five: Write up the worksheet. At each step, you will either tell the students the number of...