Buffon's Needle
This hands-on activity is known as Buffon's Needle. It is a great activity to use in order to start a unit involving pi, a discovery an activity lesson, or if further expanded, a Calc 2 activity. It involves randomly throwing toothpicks onto lines, and discovering the relationship between the length of the toothpick, the distance between the lines, the percentage of how many toothpicks land on the lines, and pi. This activity gets the kids up and moving, and they really seem to enjoy it.
Here is a link to download a PowerPoint version of this activity.
Here is the worksheet that goes with the PowerPoint.
Here is the worksheet that goes with the PowerPoint.