CAN YOU HANDLE IT?!
This week, the students in Ms. Graffis’ Civics classes at Roberto Clemente Community Academy tackled the concept of entrepreneurship and what it takes to be a successful entrepreneur. Students learned relevant terms such as investment, capital, shortage and entrepreneur, before applying the terms in action. In class, students investigated the concepts of entrepreneurship using the show Shark Tank on ABC. On Shark Tank, entrepreneurs get the chance to bring their dreams to life. They present their ideas to the “sharks in the tank” — five titans of industry who made their own dreams a reality and turned spun their abilities into empires.
Once students were introduced to the concept, they were put to the test of creating their own hypothetical product. Meanwhile, as they developed business plans and created prototypes, students learned about sales pitches, investments, and the types of markets that different products are geared to. Their business plans were required to include the product, company name, background information, business philosophy, and the market they were gearing their product towards. Students also looked at the product’s competition answered the question, “Why is my product better?” Next, students applied other economic vocabulary learned throughout the year to answer relevant questions like what capital (human and otherwise) is needed for the product to be successful and why should the “sharks” invest in your company?
Knowing the rigor of this assignment and the high expectations put on the students, Ms. Graffis decided to look at examples of sales pitches using the website KickStarter.com. Kickstarter is a public-benefit which has built a global crowd funding platform focused on creativity. The company’s stated mission is to help bring creative projects to life. This site allows students to look at sales pitches, products, and investments to decide if they want to fund the product. Using this site gave students ideas on how to present their product in creative ways. Students’ ideas ranged from filtered flavored water to self-warming jackets. Students were allowed to creatively pitch their product in various ways such as PowerPoint, Canva, Emaze and more! Using various ways to pitch their product gave kids numerous ways to express themselves from visual to auditory to kinesthetic.