Many cross-curricular connections can be made using this breakout box activity and teachers are encouraged to adapt this activity to meet their lesson’s objectives and learning outcomes. Starting a lesson with this breakout activity will create general awareness that can lead to more in-depth investigations and activities that will keep the conversation going about the beef industry. A great intro to a STEM activity!
As cities grow, many people move away from an agricultural understanding, even though it is essential to their lives. Kansas is one of the largest beef- and corn-producing states, and agriculture is the largest industry in Kansas. This breakout is designed to provide students basic knowledge of the beef industry, an industry our students should be familiar with. Students will learn about the common breeds of cattle, the beef life cycle, products made from beef, beef cuts and facts about grain- and grass-finished beef.
Middle School Science
High School Science
Kansas FACS Standards
If this is your first time using a Breakout Edu box, you are in for a treat. Once you’ve done one breakout box your students will be ready for the next time.
Currently, there are more than 700,000 cattle farms and ranches in the United States, with an average herd size of 40 cattle, that produce 19 percent of the world’s beef. Here are some Facts at a Glance to share with your students.
Popular Breeds of Cattle Cattle come in many different shapes and sizes. While there are various physical differences, they all provide high-quality, nourishing beef that can be part of a healthy diet. The four most popular beef cattle breeds in the U.S. are Angus (red and black), Charolais (pronounced “char-lay”), Hereford, and Simmental.
The Beef Life Cycle The journey of raising beef is among the most complex of any food. Due in part to their changing nutritional needs throughout their lifetime, beef cattle oftentimes will change hands and ownership up to three or four times over the course of one and a half to three years, as they move through their various life stages. Across this process, however, one important thing remains constant – and that’s the beef community’s shared commitment to raising cattle in a safe, humane and environmentally sustainable way by using the latest technology and resources. Working together, each segment of the beef life cycle aims to make the best use of vital natural resources like land, water and energy – not just for today, but also for the future.
Beyond the Beef: Cattle By-Products Beyond delicious and nutritious steaks, roasts and burgers, there are hundreds of uses for cattle by-products. Do you own a car, take a bus or ride a bike? If so, you’re utilizing by-products in the tires on your vehicle and the asphalt on the road. Even items that may seem trivial, such as dyes, inks, adhesives and plastics, are made from cattle by-products.
Here are a few ways in which cattle by-products touch our lives: • Hides from cattle are tanned into leather, becoming shoes, purses and wallets. • Cattle organs and glands are used in the production of medicine, insulation, antifreeze, shampoos/conditioners and instrument strings. • Photo film, vitamin capsules, charcoal and glass all are derived from bones and horns of cattle. • Inedible beef fat provides us with airplane lubricants, hydraulic brake fluid, biodiesel and medicines.
Grain-Finished and Grass-Finished Beef All cattle spend a majority of their lives eating grass on pastures. But beef can be finished in a variety of ways, giving you choices -at the meatcase in your local grocery store or at a restaurant. Grass-finished cattle spend their entire lives grazing and eating from pastures. These cattle may also eat forage, hay or silage at the feedyard. As well, grass-finished cattle may or may not be given FDA-approved antibiotics to treat, prevent or control disease and/or growth-promoting hormones. Beef cuts from cattle consuming mostly grass/forage tend to be marginally lower in fat than those from grain-finished beef, mostly at the expense of monounsaturated fats, the heart-healthy fats found in olive oil.
Grain-finished cattle, like grass-finished, spend the majority of their lives eating grass and forage in pastures. When beef is grain-finished, cattle are free to eat a balanced diet of grain, local feed ingredients, and hay or forage at the feedyard. Through better management of cattle nutrition, farmers are able to take local feed ingredients (by-products) common in their region, such as almond hulls, beet tops and potato starch, and feed that to cattle instead of letting it go to waste. Similarly to grass-finished cattle, grain-finished cattle may or may not be given FDA-approved antibiotics to treat, prevent or control disease and/or growth-promoting hormones. Grain feeding can result in beef with increased levels of monounsaturated fat.
Beef Cuts Beef cut posters are the most effective tools to learning more about the various cuts of beef, where they come from on the carcass, and the recommended cooking method for each cut. No matter which cut you choose, all beef cuts contain 10 essential nutrients, including protein, zinc, iron and many B vitamins. When visiting the meat section of a grocery store or a meat market the staff who prepare the cuts of meat are very knowledgeable and can assist with questions as you make your meat selection.
Recommended Ages: Can be used for all ages, but recommended for middle school and high school audiences. Ideal Group Size: Can be used small group or whole class Suggested Time: 30-40 minutes
Story Welcome back to, “Do You Know Your Moo?” Today’s contestants are all from Kansas and will be battling it out to be crowned, Beefmaster. Not only will they receive this prestigious title, but they will also walk away with some “moooovalous” prizes. They’ll be answering questions on everything from cuts of beef to differences in grain- and grass-finished beef. Sit back, relax, and get ready to play along with “Do You Know Your Moo?”
The following codes will open the locks for the online version.
3-Digit Lock – 3 Numbers 245
4-Digit Lock – 4 Numbers 5, 8, 3, 6
Directional Lock – 5 directions for the Directional Multilock Up, Down, Up, Right, Left
Color Lock – 5 colors for the Color Multilock Red, Orange, Yellow, Blue, Purple
The following codes will open the locks on the box.
Color Lock – 5 colors for the Color Multilock Red, Orange, Yellow, Blue, Magenta
Key Lock – Where is the key hidden? Teacher’s Choice
Steps
To assess learning, students will complete Do You Know Your Moo? worksheet
At the completion of this breakout, students should have a better understanding of beef, the different cattle breeds that exist in United States, and how beef plays a daily role in their lives. Feel free to give students the following questions as an exit ticket or knowledge check at the end of the breakout. If you have groups that do not breakout, go over the information/clues that would have led to the last locks coming off.
Below are suggested ways you could incorporate cattle/beef into your lessons.
Social Studies • Migration of different breeds. *This could be compared/contrasted with human migration.
Language Arts • Compare and contrast different breeds. Cuts of meat (primal and retail) to connect to roots of words.
Science • Heredity and genetics (breeding) • Life cycle of beef compared to other life cycles (stars, humans, certain animals, carbon, water, etc.)
Family and Consumer Sciences • Great introduction to any beef unit. • Presentation on both grain- and grass-finished cattle. • Create your own beef recipe with constraints (cheapest, healthiest, least amount of ingredients, etc.)
Engineering and Design • Create and design a solution for feeding grass-finished cattle in the winter when there may be snow. • Construct a more efficient bunk line for feeding cattle.
Any educator electing to perform demonstrations is expected to follow NSTA Minimum Safety Practices and Regulations for Demonstrations, Experiments, and Workshops, which are available at https://static. nsta.org/pdfs/MinimumSafetyPracticesAndRegulations.pdf, as well as all school policies and rules and all state and federal laws, regulations, codes and professional standards. Educators are under a duty of care to make laboratories and demonstrations in and out of the classroom as safe as possible. If in doubt, do not perform the demonstrations.
This lesson is the work product of the Kansas Corn Commission. Our lessons are written in collaboration with Kansas teachers for use in the classroom. Teachers may copy and share this curriculum. Use of this product for commercial or promotional use is prohibited without express permission of Kansas Corn.
As the need to produce more food with less resources grows, it is important that future generations have a better understanding of agriculture and how corn farming and agriculture fit into our daily lives. That’s why the Kansas Corn STEM program provides lessons to teach science through the lens of corn. We are committed to providing free materials and training to support educators.
