Students and faculty at PennWest Edinboro will celebrate all things Pi – the mathematical constant commonly approximated as 3.14 – during National Pi Day on Thursday, March 14.

Throughout the morning, hundreds of high school students from Erie and Crawford counties will participate in a plethora of Pi-related activities, contests and interactive lectures, including Pi trivia, Pi memorization and recitation, Tower of Hanoi, a Rubik’s cube challenge and “Putting the Pi in Python.” Edinboro students and faculty members from PennWest’s Department of Chemistry, Mathematics and Physics will also offer information sessions about pursuing careers in mathematics, actuarial science, statistics and data analytics.

“It’s impressive how many digits of Pi that winners are able to recite,” said Dr. Anne Quinn, professor of mathematics. “Past Rubik's Cube contests have yielded multiple winners who could solve the cube in less than a minute.”

The event is made possible through the Education Improvement Tax Credit (EITC) program managed by the Edinboro University Foundation.

“We have welcomed local students to our campus in honor of Pi Day for more than a decade,” Quinn said. “The events are fun for everyone, including those who already liked math and those who have now taken an interest.”

Students from Cambridge Springs, Conneaut Area, Erie, General McLane, Iroquois, McDowell and Union City high schools will be in attendance.