Pi Patrol visits Lansingburgh High School

Students at Lansingburgh High School in Troy, NY get lessons in Pi during a visit from SUNY Poly’s Pi Patrol.

As part of a Pi Day celebration, SUNY Polytechnic Institute (known one day a year as SUNY ‘Pi’) dispatched its Pi Patrol vehicle, enabling SUNY Pi faculty and staff volunteers to visit 50 high school students in the Capital Region and provide them with a special Pi-themed math and science educational program.

Upon completion of the hands-on activities, the event was be topped off with a pizza “pi” party for students who participate in the program.

“SUNY Poly’s Pi Day program offers an engaging avenue for students to become interested in the mathematical and scientific skills and concepts that can lead to the kinds of fulfilling educational and career opportunities that SUNY Poly is proudly committed to,” said SUNY Pi Interim President Dr. Bahgat Sammakia. “As our Pi Patrol reaches students in the Capital Region, we are proud to show these students that a wide variety of exciting STEM-focused opportunities are available to them.”

Students at Lansingburgh High School in Troy, NY get lessons in Pi during a visit from SUNY Poly’s Pi Patrol.

As part of SUNY Pi’s second annual celebration, the Pi Patrol visited Lansingburgh High School in Troy on Thursday, March 16 where students learned that the mathematical constant Pi, commonly approximated as 3.14159, is the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter and is represented by the Greek symbol π. After the visit, the students also better understood the many uses for Pi and its ability to help estimate measurements at the nano scale. In order to better illustrate this, students measured graphite arcs to learn about electrical resistance and conducted arc measurements with pi; exploring the electrical conductivity of jello using materials that can control resistance and be measured using pi; and created origami designs based on the circle.

“We are thrilled to once again take to the road in our SUNY Pi Patrol vehicle to support an appreciation for the STEM sciences through this immersive educational outreach program,” said SUNY PI Public Education and Outreach Coordinator Elaine Garrett. “The Pi Patrol introduces students to the ways in which the knowledge they’re gaining in the classroom can be applied to ‘real world’ problems, and we hope that this will provide a glimpse into the exciting high-tech opportunities that students can one day choose to pursue.”

At the conclusion of the educational component of the program, the SUNY Pi student and staff volunteers provided pizza to the high school students. Pi Day is celebrated around the world on March 14 because the date (3/14) reflects the ratio: 3.14. It is also the birthdate of Albert Einstein, who was born March 14, 1879.

This year’s SUNY Pi-led Pi Day activities had to be rescheduled as a result of severe weather in the region on March 14.