Poetry with Math -- BRIDGES 2012, Limericks

During July 25-29, 2012, Towson University will be hosting BRIDGES 2012, a mathematics-and-the-arts interdisciplinary conference. This year's conference will feature a poetry day on Saturday, July 28. -- an event that is free and open to the public as are all "Family Day" conference activities after 2 PM.  Mark your calendar.  More information is available at the end of this post (scroll down) and at the BRIDGES website.

  This weekend in Washington, DC (April 28 - 29, 2012)

enjoy "the largest celebration of science in the USA" --

visit the FREE USA Science and Engineering Festival -- 

featuring more than 3000 exhibits. 

We note here once again the coincidence that comes with April -- when we celebrate both National Poetry Month and Mathematics Awareness Month.  Here are three limericks (bawdy, of course) by John Ciardi (1916-1986) that celebrate data collection and numerical information. 

Macbeth and Probability

     Kansas City educator Michael Round of the Center for autoSocratic Excellence has developed a host of math teaching tools -- and within them he often uses rhyming verses amid his diagrams and his prose.  Here are the opening lines of an activity in which he links Macbeth with probabilities:

The Royal Route He Took:  A Shakespeare Poem 
                                                                       by Michael Round

This Shakespeare tragedy,

Macbeth, you know the name.

His eventual downfall thinking

Probability is a game.