Happy Ultimate Pi Day!

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Ultimate Pi Day
Only once a century do we experience Ultimate Pi Day: On March 14, XX15 at 9:26:53 (a.m. and p.m.) the date and time line up to 3.141592653  Awesome!

Pi in the Sky  I can’t let Ultimate Pi Day go by without giving a shout out to a book by one of my favorite authors, Wendy Mass.  Her novel Pi in the Sky takes us to outer space for a funny and informative science fiction adventure.  With pie!

In Wendy’s own words:

“The germ of the idea for Pi in the Sky came from a quote a middle-schooler gave me. It was by astronomer Carl Sagan: ‘If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe.’ My brain just started churning that quote over and over until a story started to form. I’ve always loved reading science fiction—starting with Ray Bradbury when I was younger—and I felt ready to take on the challenge.”

She actually started her career writing nonfiction for kids, so she’s no stranger to researching science and math.  It actually took her three years to do the research for this book before she felt ready to write about astronomy, evolution, and astrophysics on a level that students could understand.

Learn more about the book:

And here’s a link to some classroom resources for Pi Day.

I’ll leave you with the Pi Episode of Math Bites with Danica McKellar.

It’s true this is the only Ultimate Pi Day we’ll see in our lifetime (the next one will be on March 14, 2115) but Pi Day is celebrated every year on March 14.

Do you know of any other good Pi books or resources?  Please share them in the comments!

 

WWW – Study Jams

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This Week’s WWW (Weekly Wednesday Website) is ….Study Jams!

Study Jams

 

Each Study Jam is made up of a video, slide show, or step by step tutorial for a Math or Science topic, all tailored to kids.  These are great for introducing or reviewing a concept on an Interactive Whiteboard, or for giving students individual instruction and/or practice on a computer or netbook.  

To make learning even more fun, some concepts have an accompanying karaoke song so kids can sing along if they’d like!  (Tools of Measurement has a good beat, and you can really dance learn about measurement to it!)

Key vocabulary words with definitions are also provided, and there is a “test yourself” section for each concept where kids can practice what they’ve just learned. 

Explanation are clear, graphics are large and bright, and the characters are appealing.  You can browse the broad categories (Addition & Subtraction, Geometry, Fractions, Measurement, Plants, Animals, Human Body, Matter, etc) or search for a specific topic. 

The site has no ads, and requires no registration or login.  So what are you waiting for?  Go start Jamming!

 

As always, a link to this week’s WWW is posted at http://www.netvibes.com/weeklyweb, along with all of the previous WWW websites.