Meet Extension Agent Dessa Watson

Connecting Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math concepts to our everyday lives.

Flipbooks TheThe FirstFirst MovieMovie EverEver MadeMade Age Appropriate: To answer the age-old question: When trotting or 4th—HS grades Dessa Watson is the 4-H/ Youth Development Exten- galloping, do all four horse hooves leave the ground? Time Required: sion Agent for Rio Blanco 45 minutes Eadweard James Muybridge County. She has a B.S. from was an English photographer who Materials: Colorado State University in immigrated to the USA. Muybridge  Computer and printer Agriculture Education with a  white copy paper concentration in Agriculture is famous for shooting film of animal locomotion, which used multiple  Optional: card stock paper Extension Education, and an  Scissors M.A. from CSU in Agricul- cameras to capture motion in stop-  Binder clip or heavy duty ture Extension Education. action photographs, and his stapler Prior to working in Exten- zoopraxiscope, a device that pre- sion, Dessa was a Graduate dated the film strips used in The Set-up: Teaching Assistant, Riding cinematography today.  Download Gallop and Trot http://www.coopext.colo Instructor, FFA Intern Advi- In 1872, the former governor of California Leland Stanford, a state.edu/tra4h/stem.htm sor, and a 4-H Horse & Live- businessman, race-horse owner, and founder of Stanford University, hired  Print stock Intern. Eadweard Muybridge to proven scientifically whether all four feet of a horse  Gather materials Dessa loves working in were off the ground at the same time in a trot and gallop. The human eye The Clean-up: Extension as it provides a cannot determine the action fast actions like trotting or galloping. At that time, great opportunity to work  Recycle scrap paper artists painted horses at a trot with one foot always on the ground and at a full creatively, meet new people,  Put away scissors/stapler and to spend time with the gallop with the front legs extended forward and the hind legs extended to the rear, and all feet off the ground. Stanford disagreed. Power Words youth in the community. Her  flipbook: small book con- work allows Dessa to inte- Muybridge settled Stanford's question with a single photographic negative showing his Standard bred trotting horse Occident airborne at the trot. This sisting of a series of images grate her personal interests that give the illusion of and passions into her pro- negative was lost. Stanford also wanted a study of the horse at a gallop. continuous movement when grams. She enjoys incorporat- Muybridge placed numerous large glass-plate cameras in a line along the edge the edges of the pages are ing her love of horses by of the track; the shutter of each was triggered by a thread as the horse passed, flipped quickly working with 4-H’ers in all and the path was lined with cloth sheets to reflect as much light as possible.  gallop: A natural three-beat aspects of horse projects. He copied the images in the form of silhouettes onto a disc to be viewed in a gait of a horse, faster than a Dessa believes the Horse machine he had invented, which he called a zoopraxiscope. This device was canter, in which all four project is great year round for later regarded as an early movie projector, and the process as an intermediate feet are off the ground at horse crazy youth! The Colo- stage toward motion pictures or cinematography. the same time during each rado 4-H Horse project offers stride. The study is called Sallie Gardner at a Gallop or The Horse in Motion the equine enthusiasts ways  scientifically: employing to improve horsemanship, (photo above); it shows images of the horse with all feet off the ground. This the methodology of science expand equine knowledge, did not take place when the horse's legs were extended to the front and back, (asking a testable question, and develop great record as imagined by contemporary illustrators, but when its legs were collected designing an experiment to keeping skills! For the avid beneath its body as it switched from "pulling" with the front legs to "pushing" answer that question, set- horse lovers who do not have with the back legs. ting a hypothesis— a horse, there is the Horseless collecting and analyzing Horse project where youth EXPLORE IT - DESIGN IT - DO IT data, drawing conclu- learn all they need for their Directions: sions—communicating these data, and adding ben- own a horse one day!  You are going to make your own movie of The Horse in Motion (although Dessa loves living in efit to humanity) from later photographs) in flip book form.  trot: The gait of a horse or NW Colorado with her hus-  Carefully cut the pictures along the dotted lines, being sure to leave the band Brett and beautiful baby other four-footed animal, white strip on the left of each photo (with 2 “X” and the number of the between a walk and a can- boy Whit Thomas. She en- photo in the series). Note, the more evenly and carefully you cut out each ter in speed, in which diag- joys time at home with her onal pairs of legs move family and all the critters of photo, the better your flip book will work. forward together. her “funny farm”, especially  Order the pages from the title page to photograph #19.  zoopraxiscope: early de- “Little John,” her sweet pet  If you use a heavy duty stapler, staple at each “X.” If you use a binder clip, clip along the left edge. vice for displaying motion sheep. Dessa’s riding goal for pictures, created Eadweard  Bend the book backwards, and allow the pages to flip with your thumb this winter is to get her green Muybridge in 1879 horses going and to master controlling the speed. Photo Credits: the art of team roping so she Dessa Watson by Brett Watson can rope with her husband! Horse galloping—http://en.wikipedia.org/ Colorado State University Extension 4-H programs are available to all without discrimination. wiki/Sallie_Gardner_at_a_Gallop