Pi-em (100 word h/w)

Earlier this week I set my Year 9 top set a homework task involving Pi.

The homework was to create a Pi-em; a poem/story where the numbers in each of the words correspond to the first 100 digits of Pi.
We have been looking at area and circumferences of circles in class and so this seemed like an original homework to give them. Not only will it help them in terms of remembering Pi (not necessarily to 100 decimal places), but it will also improve their literacy skills, of which there is a whole school wide push this year.

So, I combined the Pi-em challenge with the 100 word challenge that I am a big fan of and do weekly in tutor times with my year 8 form (see http://100wc.net)

Their homework isn't due in until Friday but I've already had a few of them handed in, here's one that has already been submitted...

She, a fool? A moron? Sanctuary is surely right for souls fighting, murdering, killing. Perfectly, for it can beautify, home sticks in hearts, like she can remember, and it rotates. Enlighten those he replaces creation with a clockwork machine. A single influence and creations regularly ban person’s lives. I speak external; an alligator battles with inanimate, huge logs. Hives, naturally an ant attacks a lively hive, forget to remember ratios. “Yo!” splutter centipede policemen. Rainbows tickle my Achilles. Ham can’t discover my hares. But joke’s on a-a penguin rapper. Rolling defiantly.

 

Here's the first 100 digits of Pi

3.1415926535897932384626433832795028841971693993751058209749445923078164 062862089986280348253421170679

As you can see from the Pi-em above the 1st word contains 3 letters, the 2nd word contains 1 letter, the 3rd word contains 4 letters, the 4th word contains 1 letter and so on...

I love the randomness of the pieces of writing that I've had in so far. Having provided the class of an example myself I know how difficult it is trying to think of 8 letter words or 6 letter words that somehow fit the story/poem that you are writing. This not only gets the students to look up these length words but also gets them thinking about how they can make their stories/poems make some sort of sense.

Oh, one last thing, with the 0 digits I told the class to either leave them out or to just use 'O' for those digits.

I'm planning on making a Pi-em display in my classroom once I've had them all handed in! More to come...