International Mathematics Day: driving scientific vocations!
International Mathematics Day is on 14 March. The city is joining in for the first time this year with a morning of school activities and an institutional ceremony in the afternoon, the goal being to foster scientific vocations and underline the importance of mathematics in the sphere of education and in society.
Organised jointly with the Catalan Mathematics Society (SCM), the day is also known as Pi Day because the mathematical constant π can be rounded to 3.14, coinciding with the 14th day of the third month of the year. In addition, various activities are planned in the morning around Plaça del Pi.
Specifically, 210 pupils from five secondary schools in the Ciutat Vella district (Institut Escola Elisabets, Institut Escola Sant Felip Neri, Institut Miquel Tarradell, La Salle-Comtal and Escola Vedruna-Àngels) will be taking part in groups in three mathematics workshops.
At midday, the main symbolic activity will be held in Plaça del Pi, open to the public and with an unveiling of a plaque with the number pi, along with some words from the mathematicians Núria Fagella and Enrique Gracián.
In the afternoon there’s an institutional event in the Saló de Cent at Barcelona City Hall. The ceremony features a speech by Montserrat Alsina, chair of the Catalan Mathematics Society, and a talk by the Barcelona mathematician Ariadna Farrés, one of the nine Catalan women scientists participating in the Hypatia I project, the first women’s mission to simulate a trip to Mars.
