Tree Cutting

The other day the city sent a company out to cut the trees along the street in front of our house. I’m always fascinated by other people’s professions that I can’t imagine myself doing. So, I brought out my lawn chair and throughout the day I took photos of what they were doing.

I was totally amazed how they could cut down tall trees and never had to ask my neighbor across the street to move all of his vehicles. I thought for sure that they would have to close the road and move everything out of the way. Instead they only closed one lane and never closed the road.

This one man went up and down in a bucket truck and I was impressed with how much he could do high up in the air with a chain saw. He wasn’t a young man either and the chain saw had a 3 foot blade on it so he had to use a lot of arm muscles.

After most of the smaller branches were cut off, they tied off the big limbs and when they were cut, they swung back into my yard away from any vehicles or the road. By watching them, I realized it was important how the rope tied off the limb and it was all about angles.

This would be such a great math lesson to use in a classroom. Too many times I hear students wonder when they would use certain math skills. This would be a great real life application of angles and their effect.

I love looking around in my day to day situations to see how reading, math and writing are used. Being able to show relevance and real life applications can help students stay engaged in some tough lessons.

What situations around you lend themselves to a real life application of a lesson? Please share.

Original photo by Pat Hensley