{"id":207,"date":"2016-03-26T08:08:40","date_gmt":"2016-03-26T15:08:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sci.sdsu.edu\/lipsonlab\/?p=207"},"modified":"2019-10-05T16:05:10","modified_gmt":"2019-10-05T23:05:10","slug":"julian-pi-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sci.sdsu.edu\/lipsonlab\/julian-pi-day\/","title":{"rendered":"Julian Pi Day"},"content":{"rendered":"

On Pi-day, March 14, 2015 (that’s 3-14-15, the pi-day of the century), I had a party at my house (starting at 9:26 am) to show off the musical instruments I had built, inspired by circular geometry. When I saw the guest’s children playing and interacting with these musical sculptures\/instruments, it became obvious to me that these instruments were meant for kids. That is, kids complete these objects. (Though I did later discover that this would require a bit more ruggedization).<\/p>\n

\"SavannaChimes\"<\/a> \"WillowPiBongos\"<\/a> \"WillowPiPipes\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Since I would be out out of town for Pi-day 2016, I settled for Julian Pi day: the 314th day of the year in the Julian calendar. This turned out to be particularly appropriate, given that the school I visited was part of Julian Charter Schools, and also for the lame pun on the famous Julian apple pie (maybe a little overrated, but still tasty). So after a brief lecture on the nature of pi and the geometry of circles I demonstrated my instruments, and then let the kids go wild.<\/p>\n

\"JulianPi2\"<\/a>
Students playing with the Circle Guitar (refretted to play a scale based on the circle) and the Harp of Forbidden Notes (again a scale based on the geometry of shapes circumscribed into a circle)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"JulianPi5\"<\/a>
Students playing a Pi Pipe and Pi Bongos, again based on the geometry of shapes circumscribed into circles<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Middle<\/a>
Julian Pi day at a San Diego Middle School<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The only instruction I gave them was that when improvising music with a group of people, it is important to listen to each other. Then they actually did it! I was surprised to see how well they coordinated their efforts and worked together to make a cohesive groove.\u00a0 In hindsight it seems obvious, but these musical sculptures are an effective tool for building teamwork skills.<\/p>\n

My favorite quote from a thoughtful young man, aged about 11, “This is interesting and different.”<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Update: see News 8 Morning Extra Pi Day event<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On Pi-day, March 14, 2015 (that’s 3-14-15, the pi-day of the century), I had a party at my house (starting at 9:26 am) to show off the musical instruments I had built, inspired by circular geometry. When I saw the guest’s children playing and interacting with these musical sculptures\/instruments, it became obvious to me that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":91,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-207","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-science-art"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sci.sdsu.edu\/lipsonlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sci.sdsu.edu\/lipsonlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sci.sdsu.edu\/lipsonlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sci.sdsu.edu\/lipsonlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sci.sdsu.edu\/lipsonlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=207"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/sci.sdsu.edu\/lipsonlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":340,"href":"https:\/\/sci.sdsu.edu\/lipsonlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207\/revisions\/340"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sci.sdsu.edu\/lipsonlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/91"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sci.sdsu.edu\/lipsonlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=207"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sci.sdsu.edu\/lipsonlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=207"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sci.sdsu.edu\/lipsonlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=207"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}