Spring Break is right around the corner beginning next Wednesday! Many of our Auburn Adventist Academy students are headed home to take advantage of the time to rest and relax before the final push to the end of the year. Spring Break can also be a busy and rewarding “break” for Auburn Adventist Academy students who are headed out on a mission trip or on our Europe Educational Tour.

This year, our Auburn mission trip is headed to Kahili Mountain Park Camp located in Kauai, Hawaii. Students, staff and parents headed to the camp will be remodeling their commercial kitchen, building an outdoor amphitheater, upgrading camp buildings and grounds, and painting in order to give this beautiful camp facility some much needed tender, loving care. If you are interested in sponsoring a student, please contact Jennifer Woody at jennifer.woody@auburn.org.

The Europe Educational Tour will be using spring break as a time to see historic and cultural sites. They will be spending three days in Rome, Italy, one day in Florence, Italy, and three days in Paris, France. Seventeen students, staff and parents from Auburn Adventist Academy will be joined by a group of six Puget Sound Adventist Academy (PSAA)  travelers.

Additionally, three AAA students, three PSAA students and 3 AAA/PSAA faculty will be joining the North Pacific Union's evangelism mission trip to the Dominican Republic. Auburn will be well-represented around the world during spring break!

“When does math get a holiday? So why not celebrate it!” ~ Michelle Weikum

Pi day at Auburn Adventist Academy is an excellence excuse to celebrate math and eat some pie on the side! Miss Weikum is one of our math teachers at Auburn Adventist Academy and our resident Pi day facilitator. This year, she will be celebrating pi on March 13 due to the fact that March 14 is a shortened class day because of the start of spring break. Not only does she bring pie for all of her students that day, but she also organizes her lesson plans around pi and all of its mathematical beauty.

In Pre-Algebra, Weikum’s students have been learning about patterns and frequency so they will be looking at the frequency of the digits in pi. They will also be looking for their birth day in the numbers of pi. Find your birthday in pi too!

Pi day has perfect timing for Weikum’s geometry class because they are just beginning their study of circles. Her students will be calculating area and circumference of circles with the help of the game, Mono-pi-ly. Geometry class also has the privilege of reading about Sir Cumference in the book, “Sir Cumference and the Dragon of Pi” written by Cindy Neuschwander who has a whole set of children’s adventure books inspired by math concepts.

Weikum’s Pre-Calculus class is the most familiar with pi due to the fact that they have just finished their third of the year studying Trigonometry. This class will be delving into the history of pi, how it is calculated today, and who has memorized the most digits of pi.

“Pi can be an elementary or deep concept,” says Weikum. Pi day is a perfect opportunity to show students of any math level that math can be more than just a dry, number crunching class.

Weikum has been including Pi day in her curriculum for the last five years and all of her three years here at Auburn Adventist Academy. She feels that students remember the day and look forward to it every year. Pi day is now recognized by Congress and will continue to be celebrated by Math teacher Michelle Weikum.