For many years on this last Wednesday before Spring Break, I have led my school in an Ecomystery, and all-school project in which we explore a country through some science conundrum.

 Today's topic was the Ancestry of the Spanish horse. One of my earrings shows an Andalusian horse, the perfect Spanish breed, the other shows tiny Eohippus whose 45 million year old fossils have been found right here in North America. Over time, Eophippus (also known as Hyracotherium) evolved until eventually (right here in North America) it became our modern horse. During the last ice age, horses became extinct in the Americas, but thrived in Asia, Europe, and Africa.

Today, we looked at horses, and how they connect Spain (the country we are studying this week) and America. When Columbus departed from Spain and sailed the ocean blue in fourteen hundred ninety two, he brought horses back to their native land.

I made my earrings one snow day. On Sunday I made my horses. I managed to take a photo of my modern PVC horse today, before it was dismantled. My three smaller horses (Eohippus, Mesohippus, and Merychippus) had already returned to PVC and paper. He's a bit worse for wear, having been carried across campus through the rain.

I've joked that this will be my next project: teaching with PVC pipe. (I also do a bit of simple plumbing!)

In the morning, my students and I will take this Equus complicatus apart, and store his pipe for another use.

But what will I ever do with those earrings?