Mr Smith’s Eyes Pi Puzzle Hunt
Grange Academy’s Mr Smith is famous for his PiDay celebrations, which take place on 14 March each year, helping to bring a special day in the Mathematical calendar to life for his pupils.
He wanted to make sure that our young people didn’t miss out this year and created a special Eyes Pi Puzzle Hunt that all the family could participate in safely, outdoors. The competition, which has been running over the past few weeks, was won by ‘The Sherlock Skillens’, sisters Sophie and Jessica who completed the puzzle with a score of 98%. They will receive geeky maths prizes and a voucher for, yes you guessed it £31.41.
Congratulations also go to the runners up Team Rodger and Team White.
Mr Smith said: “This year’s PiDay antics revolved around my Eyes Pi Puzzle, a family friendly clue-solving extravaganza around Kilmarnock. I created 100 verses of poetic puzzles that sent families round the town problem solving as they went. To crack these problems, teams would have to spot interesting landmarks, house names, picture clues, number facts; there was a lot to take in. And as you’d expect from me, there were more than a few Pi-themed conundrums in the mix and a dramatic reveal at the finale.
“This has been a PiDay activity for all ages. One mum and dad took their 8-month old son Timothy out on the Puzzle Hunt and at the other end of the spectrum, a couple in their late 70s were desperate to try it out.
“Every team who completed the Puzzle Hunt was rewarded with one final big surprise – a link to a video on YouTube which revealed that in trekking round Kilmarnock they had unwittingly been tracing out a PiDay message. The Puzzle Hunt actually spelled out the letters PiDay with the pi symbol below it. This seems like a fitting reward, especially for the diehards who made it all the way to the end of my series of fiendish clues.”
The Eyes Pi Puzzle Hunt competition deadline was Sunday 14 March, but you can still give this challenge a go. The clues, directions and answer form is available at tinyurl.com/eyespi . Completing the Puzzle Hunt will take a few hours and you will be given your score at the end.