Student Engagement

5-Minute Film Festival: Pi Day Ideas for Any Subject

Want to celebrate Pi Day? You’ve come to the right place.

March 6, 2025

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March 14 is almost here, and math teachers shouldn’t get to have all the fun! These Pi Day ideas can help you make connections across the curriculum, all while celebrating the wonders of math and baked goods.

Try one of these quick, fun videos and activities to celebrate Pi Day—in whatever subject you teach.

Pi Day in Science

Students have encountered pi plenty in geometry, but do they know it can be used to explore other planets, calculate electrostatic force, or even define the whole universe? Hank Green, one of the internet’s favorite science guys, lays out three ways pi can explain almost everything.

Bonus activity: Explore how NASA uses pi with engaging puzzles designed for grades 4–12.

A mathematical fact like pi is immutable… Or is it? Here’s the story of when Indiana’s state legislature almost legally changed pi to 3.2 (spoiler alert: pi does not equal 3.2).

Bonus activity: Use the video as a starting point for a lesson on the legislative process or the importance of fact-checking and media literacy. Or dive into the archives for A Brief History of Pi (π) and Pie (🥧).

English Language Arts

What’s a pi-ku? On easy mode, it’s a haiku inspired by pi. On hard mode, it’s a poem whose syllables follow the digits of pi: 3, 1, 4, 1, 5, and so on.

Inspire students to write their own poetry with this guide!

Bonus activity: Lean into the hopecore energy and play some thematic background music—or have students perform a dramatic hopecore-inspired reading of their pi-kus.

They can even generate an original song using Suno, an AI music-generation tool.

And, Of Course, Pi Day in Math

For Young Students

Use Pi Day to celebrate the humble circle! Watch this video for a brief explanation of the concept of pi and a discussion question: How do you use circles in your everyday life?

Bonus activity: Lead students on a hunt for circles (and other shapes) in nature, famous works of art, and/or the hallways of your school. Check out this article for ideas.

For Older Students

In this short animation, we learn the backstory and the many applications of pi, from the study of music to financial models. You can even calculate the density of the universe!

Get the entire lesson on TED-Ed’s website, complete with a short quiz and resources delving deeper into pi.

Bonus activity: Get hands-on with a toothpick toss, find your lucky number within the first 200 million digits of pi, or stretch your brain with a pi puzzler.