Representing Pi: an Open-Ended Project

Each year, I spend the week of March 14th doing activities and projects with my classes centered around everyone's favorite irrational number: Pi!

To start the week each year, we begin with artistic representations just to get them excited before we dive into computing pie, etc!

There are many amazing "Pi Day" projects out floating around on the inter-webs! I have done many of them with my 4th and 5th grade classes over the years. We have made chains of pi, pi cities on graph paper, and even did a school-wide circle mural in our cafeteria!

The past could years, I wanted to exercise and celebrate the creativity of my students to see what they would produce without having too much direction. Using the supplies from our classroom Maker Space, the students were given an open-ended project. What they designed and created the past few years has been inspiring!

This Instructable is to inspire you to create your own Pi-inspired art, or to pass it along to your kids or classrooms! Enjoy!

P.S. If you notice a lot of quilling in these designs, it is because we were coming off a week of paper quilling designs from the week before. LOL!

We started our quest for "Pi-nspiration" by learning a bit about this irrational number! You can find a plethora of great videos and lessons online with a quick search using your favorite internet search engine... ah... who are we kidding, you're going to Google it!

For this design challenge, the students were asked to create an artistic representation of at least the first six digits of Pi. They were given access to any of the tools and materials in our classroom and our Makerspace.

We spent a bit of time brainstorming possibilities, and then they went to work designing!

The students were then given the option of working independently or with a partner. They came up with a plan (they could either sketch it out, write out their idea, or just tell me about it). Once they had their idea, they had about 45 minutes to execute their plans!

And here you have it: Unique, one of a kind artwork inspired by Pi! We had so many great examples, but here are just a few to inspire you!

Photo 1: These two ladies created Pi City! They began by cutting 1-inch strips of cardboard. They then cut each piece into lengths for each of the first 26 digits of Pi (ie. 3-inch length, 1-inch length, 4-inch length, etc.). They then used the pieces they cut to create the city... and added a bit of quilling for good measure!

Photo 2: We had just done a quilling project the week before, so this student used simple paper quills to represent the first 14 digits of Pi!

Photo 3: This student used the digits of Pi to create this drawing. He first started by creating a key where each digit (0-9) was given a symbol/image. He then drew the icon on his page each time that digit appeared in the Pi sequence!

Photo 4: This one got a bit turned around, but it was a cool use of playing cards... and it was double-sided, so the sequence continues on the opposite side!

I hope this little idea encourages you to peer into the abyss of Pi and see what you find there! What do you see when you look into Pi? What will you create?

If you do make a "Pi-nspired" piece of artwork, please share it with me!

Happy Pi-Day, 2021!