March is known throughout the country as the month where sixty-eight college basketball teams compete against each other for glory. Crazed basketball fans cheer on the sidelines for their favorite teams and make predictions about whom they believe will win. At Parker, March is similar. Parker students wildly cheer on their friends and peers within the auditorium as they ambitiously compete to recite the most digits of pi. March Mathness is a month-long event that takes place every year. The month consists of competitive math related competitions, presentations from experienced mathematicians, and much more.

“It’s an effort to bring math into the spotlight throughout the school,” Upper School math teacher Ethan Levine said. The Math Department created March Mathness when they noticed that math did not get recognized as much as other subjects and topics during Morning Exes and community-wide events. They felt as if they needed something that would get students interested and involved in math outside of the classroom.

Parker’s closure due to COVID-19 cut March Mathness short. The Pi Day Competition, one of the most well known events held during March Mathness, took place on Friday, March 13th. The winner of the competition was junior Aidan Weinberg, and the second runner-up was freshman Lavanya Goyal.

Weinberg recalled a total of 218 pi digits. He claims to have originally memorized 250 digits of pi. Weinberg first became interested in the competition at Parker when he was a freshman, and one of his advisory members won the competition, recalling over 1,000 digits of pi. Inspired, Weinberg decided he would try to recall at least 100 digits, and he succeeded, coming in third place, remembering 113 digits. The next year, as a sophomore, Weinberg came in first place, improving his original score with 150 digits recalled. This year, he began his preparation in February, which was later than he planned on starting. Originally, he intended to try to recall 500 digits, but then it became too late. Next year, he plans to memorize 1,200, which would break the Upper School record.

“I encourage everyone to participate in the competition,” Weinberg said. “It’s fun and you only have to memorize 15 digits to get a donut.”

The week of March 16, two prestigious mathematicians were scheduled to speak during Morning Exs: Sunil Singh, author of the book “Math Recess” a “recreational mathematician,” according to Levine, and Eugenia Chang, the mathematician in residence at the Art Institute of Chicago. Their presentations have been canceled.

March is one of the only times when math has the spotlight throughout the school, and students will not experience the full glory of March Mathness this year.