First of all, horses are the best. Secondly, a lady I was at the ranch with pronounced the word “harses,” which is the same way Meg Ryan pronounces it in Sleepless in Seattle when she sings along with Roy Rogers and Dale Evans’s Sleigh Ride… but I digress.
No one in the world has ever loved horses more than a 5th grade student I taught last year. She was super interested in this book, to the point that she took my Paleontology extra class.
The next thing I want to say, before I start the actual lesson plan, is that I got super excited about this lesson from the National Park Service when I taught Evolution last year. It’s all a big cohesive lesson, so you can just go ahead and do it. It’s about horse evolution, based on tooth fossils. Also, the American Museum of Natural History has a ton of horse resources.
Okay, here we go…
Scientist You Should Know
I picked some Montana scientists for these lessons when I could find the ones I liked. Here’s a topic Montana scientists are interested in studying…
Dr. Elizabeth Metcalf studies the relationship between human recreation and wildlife management. This podcast episode is an interview with her about the research and teaching she does at University of Montana.
Introducing the Topic
https://www.amnh.org/explore/videos/shelf-life/tooth-fossils
Experiencing the science
It would be amazing if we could look at a horse’s teeth and hooves, but most of us can’t. Here are a few youtube videos I found to give us some idea of modern horse teeth and hooves. BUT, if you can see an actual horse getting its dental or hoof care, by all means, do it.
Response and Analysis
There are a ton of horse lesson ideas on this website! What I would say, based on what I’ve seen is that horse tooth and hoof fossils are pretty great data for all kinds of horse science, so let’s see what we can do…
Multisensory
In terms of our most multisensory learners, let’s think about all the teeth and toes we have access to in our learning spaces. Maybe we saved baby teeth we can look at together if we are people who have lost our teeth. Maybe our pets have teeth they will let us look at/touch. If we or our pets need teeth cleanings, we can do that together and ask questions about what teeth are made of. What about toes and feet? How are our toenails and claws similar/different? Does it hurt when we cut our finger/toe nails? What about our pets? How do pets care for their own claws?
https://www.thesprucepets.com/learn-the-parts-of-the-hoof-and-their-functions-1887332
Creative
Paleontologists and evolutionary biologists need to look at the details of fossils, compare them, and make hypotheses about how they relate. Try drawing 5-6 different horse breeds. As you draw, think about similarities and differences. How might you put the different horses into groups? Why? Here is a webpage about the different horse breeds. If you have access to a horse barn, go there, ask the people who work in the barn about the different breeds of horse. Can you tell which one is which?
Verbal
Read these articles about horse tooth fossils or find your own. Explain what you learned to a grown-up who likes to think about science or horses or both. What questions do the two of you have? Can you find the answers on the internet? How will you know if you’ve found a good source of information? Read about how to do good research here.
https://www.popsci.com/science/horse-tooth-fossil-evolution-north-america/
Analytical
This lesson plan is amazing.
Check out this lesson from the American Museum of Natural History.