Pi Day, Pi-kus

Jason and Sam's classes had a lot of fun with π the last couple of weeks.

We watched videos from Vi Hart and Danica McKellar, baked some pies and wrote π-kus. Gabe spearheaded the pie-baking with help from Ariana and Ben. On Friday, we all sat down for a celebration of π.

Ben made an Apple π. 

A π-ku is a poetry form (made up?) by Sam. It's a three line poem where the letters of the words are the digits of π. Like a traditional haiku it is three lines, but instead of 5-7-5 syllables, it is 5-7-5 words. A few of the classes π-ku are shared with you here:

π-kus

It's a pity, I think

wondering if anyone really can adore homework.

Educators provide boatloads for us.

How I know a thing.

Knowledge of powers great will never foretell

anything's history. Mystery, it's me.

Jason's Documentary elective

As I'm sure you know, we recently started our second round of electives for the year. My (Jason) elective is Documentaries, where we'll be both watching and creating films. We've met a few times so far, and I thought you might like a peek at some of what we've watched together: 

Mars Out of Time (or "MOOT.")

Belgian cartoonist Hergé has recently joined our class. 

Over the next several weeks, you'll be hearing a lot about the planet Mars, and something we call "MOOT." 

"MOOT" stands for Mars Out of Time, which is a new spin on one of our favorite annual projects. For many years, Summers-Knoll students have had the opportunity to participate in Place Out of Time (or "POOT"), a simulation run by the University of Michigan. The idea behind Place Out of Time is brilliant: What if we could bring the great (and lesser) minds of history to ponder a contemporary issue?