GMC News

The math department at Georgia Military College Prep School organized the annual “Amazing Pi Race” Thursday to celebrate the day as National Pi Day and instill the love of mathematics within students. “This is a initiative by the math department teachers to get the students excited about pi and learn about applications,” said Math Department Chair Maj. Linda Brown before hyping up a class with music and stretches Thursday afternoon. Around 510 students in grades six through 12 worked in pairs to complete the race, which began near the Davenport football field. As teams correctly solved math problems dealing with pi, they were directed to five other stations throughout campus, which also included a hula hoop toss, a wheelbarrow challenge and a dizzy bat obstacle course to the finish line. “Three of the stations are academic and three are circle challenges with games involving circles,” Brown said. “The team that finishes the race first in their class receives a certificate and an oatmeal cream pie.” Eighth-graders Makayla Johnson and Gabbie Nobles were the first to cross the finish line in their class with a time of nine minutes and four seconds. “I enjoyed competing with everybody,” Johnson said while trying to catch her breath. “The math problems weren’t too hard.” Community volunteers from Exchange Bank and Georgia College Young Life donated their time to help at various stations throughout the day. “We hope students learn that math has practical applications and can be a lot of fun at the same time,” Brown said. “We stress the use of applications in the classrooms, but we’re having fun with it today.” Pi, approximately 3.14159, is the mathematical constant that represents the ratio of any circle’s circumference to its diameter. Since three, one and four are the first three decimal digits of pi, Pi Day is a holiday to celebrate the mathematical constant in the month/day format- 3/14. The United States House of Representatives passed a non-binding Resolution March 14, 2009 to recognize the day as National Pi Day to urge schools to take the opportunity to engage students with the study of mathematics. Click here to subscribe to The Union-Recorder print edition. https://tinyurl.com/6qdm4oj Click here to subscribe to The Union-Recorder e-edition and view this full article. https://unionrecorder.newspaperdirect.com/epaper/viewer.aspx