Introduction: (Initial Observation)
Horse is a strong, efficient and useful animal that is used as a ride, pulling trailers and doing farm works. Before invention of automobile, horse was the fastest tool for transportation. Today, horses are being used for racing, traveling in mountains and woods, agriculture and as a pet.
Preparing a display of the body parts of this useful animal can be a very educational project. The display that you make may be used at the science fair or your classroom and as an educational tool to teach others about the body parts of a horse.
Study of body parts of human and animals is the first step toward understanding their specific life science. Studying body parts is known as anatomy. Anatomy is an important part of life science.
Information Gathering:
Find out about what you want to investigate. Read books, magazines or ask professionals who might know in order to learn about the effect or area of study. Keep track of where you got your information from.
Following are some information that you need for your project.
Parts of a Horse
Body Parts of the Horse
You may reproduce this as a part of your display
Digestive System of the Horse
You may reproduce this as a part of your display
Skeleton of the Horse
You may reproduce this as a part of your display
Poll: The poll is the bony prominence lying between the ears. Except for the ears, it is the highest point on the horses body when it is standing with its head up.
Mane: The long hair along the top of the neck
Withers: The withers is the prominent ridge where the neck and the back join. At the withers, powerful muscles of the neck and shoulders attach to the elongated spines of the second to sixth thoracic vertebrae. The height of a horse is measured vertically from the withers to the ground, because the withers is the horse’s highest constant point.
Back: The back extends from the base of the withers to where the last rib is attached.
Loin: The loin or coupling is the short area joining the back to the powerful muscular croup ( rump).
Crest: Curved top line of the neck.
Breast: The Breast is a muscle mass between the forelegs, covering the front of the chest.
Forearm: The part of the front legs between the knee and the elbow.
Knee: The knee is the joint between the forearm and the cannon bone.
Coronet: The coronet is the band around the top of the hoof from which the hoof wall grows.
Hoof: The hoof refers to the horny wall and the sole of the foot. The foot includes the horny structure and the pedal bones and navacular bones, as well as other connective tissue.
Pastern: The pastern extends from the fetlock to the top of the hoof.
Fetlock: The fetlock is the joint between the cannon bone and the pastern.
Cannon: The cannon bone lies between the knee and fetlock joint, and is visible from the front of the leg.
Hock: The hock is the joint between the gaskin and the cannon bone, in the rear leg. The bony protuberance at the back of the hock is called the point of hock.
Gaskin: The gaskin is the region between the stifle and the hock.
Croup: The croup (rump) lies between the loin and the tail. When one is looking from the side or back, it is the highest point of the hindquarters.
Elbow: The elbow is a bony prominence lying against the chest at the beginning of the forearm.
Hindquarters: The hindquarters give power to the horse.
Question/ Purpose:
What do you want to find out? Write a statement that describes what you want to do. Use your observations and questions to write the statement.
The purpose of this project is to make a model that shows the horse body parts.
Identify Variables:
When you think you know what variables may be involved, think about ways to change one at a time. If you change more than one at a time, you will not know what variable is causing your observation. Sometimes variables are linked and work together to cause something. At first, try to choose variables that you think act independently of each other.
Identifying variables is not needed for a display project.
Hypothesis:
Based on your gathered information, make an educated guess about what types of things affect the system you are working with. Identifying variables is necessary before you can make a hypothesis.
Hypothesis is not needed for a display project.
Experiment Design:
Design an experiment to test each hypothesis. Make a step-by-step list of what you will do to answer each question. This list is called an experimental procedure. For an experiment to give answers you can trust, it must have a “control.” A control is an additional experimental trial or run. It is a separate experiment, done exactly like the others. The only difference is that no experimental variables are changed. A control is a neutral “reference point” for comparison that allows you to see what changing a variable does by comparing it to not changing anything. Dependable controls are sometimes very hard to develop. They can be the hardest part of a project. Without a control you cannot be sure that changing the variable causes your observations. A series of experiments that includes a control is called a “controlled experiment.”
Experiment:
In this experiment you will make cardboard horse model and label the most important horse body parts. Use your model as the main part of your display.
Procedure:
| Print or draw the basic pieces of a horse body on construction paper.
Cut the pieces and place them on each other in the best possible way to form a horse model. Punch a hole in the middle of the areas that two pieces are overlapped. Use large snap buttons to connect the pieces together. This will allow the body parts to move freely. Paint and label the body parts. |
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Materials and Equipment:
Use heavy construction paper to construct your model.
Results of Experiment (Observation):
Experiments are often done in series. A series of experiments can be done by changing one variable a different amount each time. A series of experiments is made up of separate experimental “runs.” During each run you make a measurement of how much the variable affected the system under study. For each run, a different amount of change in the variable is used. This produces a different amount of response in the system. You measure this response, or record data, in a table for this purpose. This is considered “raw data” since it has not been processed or interpreted yet. When raw data gets processed mathematically, for example, it becomes results.
Calculations:
No calculations are required for this project.
Summary of Results:
Summarize what happened. This can be in the form of a table of processed numerical data, or graphs. It could also be a written statement of what occurred during experiments.
It is from calculations using recorded data that tables and graphs are made. Studying tables and graphs, we can see trends that tell us how different variables cause our observations. Based on these trends, we can draw conclusions about the system under study. These conclusions help us confirm or deny our original hypothesis. Often, mathematical equations can be made from graphs. These equations allow us to predict how a change will affect the system without the need to do additional experiments. Advanced levels of experimental science rely heavily on graphical and mathematical analysis of data. At this level, science becomes even more interesting and powerful.
Conclusion:
Using the trends in your experimental data and your experimental observations, try to answer your original questions. Is your hypothesis correct? Now is the time to pull together what happened, and assess the experiments you did.
Related Questions & Answers:
What you have learned may allow you to answer other questions. Many questions are related. Several new questions may have occurred to you while doing experiments. You may now be able to understand or verify things that you discovered when gathering information for the project. Questions lead to more questions, which lead to additional hypothesis that need to be tested.
Possible Errors:
If you did not observe anything different than what happened with your control, the variable you changed may not affect the system you are investigating. If you did not observe a consistent, reproducible trend in your series of experimental runs there may be experimental errors affecting your results. The first thing to check is how you are making your measurements. Is the measurement method questionable or unreliable? Maybe you are reading a scale incorrectly, or maybe the measuring instrument is working erratically.
If you determine that experimental errors are influencing your results, carefully rethink the design of your experiments. Review each step of the procedure to find sources of potential errors. If possible, have a scientist review the procedure with you. Sometimes the designer of an experiment can miss the obvious.
Questions and answers
What would be a good topic about part’s of a horse?
You may call it “Parts of a horse” or “Horse anatomy” or “Know your horse”. Of course you may come up with better ideas by yourself.
What is the most important part of a horse?
Horses are not raised for their body parts. They are animals that give ride or provide services in farms. Every part of the horse body must be in good health for horse to be able to work.
What is the most powerful part of a horse?
Horses have powerful legs.
What would be a good {hypothesis} for this project?
Hypothesis is an educated guess to a question. For every question you may have one hypothesis. For the most powerful part of the horse, your hypothesis may state that “The legs are the strongest part of the horse.”; or any other part you think is the strongest.
About how many years can horse live ?
Horses live 25 to 35 years.
