It's Shark Tank Time!

Every year our 6th graders partake in an incredible PBL (Project Based Learning) experience in Language Arts, Social Studies, and Math.  It's called Shark Tank.

And every year new layers have been added to the unit.  

Year one, they wrote the Shark Tank Times using a variety of Google Slides templates.

Year two, logos became an optional addition.

Year three, logos became a requirement, complete with a pretty cool logo lesson and an introduction to Google Drawings.

Year four, the logo lesson grew deeper, more complex, and included a brand new graphic design component.

Year five, the logo lesson continued to morph, as did the graphic design component, helped along by Tony Vincent's Shapegrams.

And this year, app design became an optional element.  I went to this incredible session on App Design at MACUL.  It happened to right before I was leading a lesson on website and app design with our 6th graders, too (can you say "synchronicity"?)

Because COVID kept us from hosting a big Shark Tank event, where all the families are invited, and community members come in to sit on judges panels, the element of Zoom was also added into the mix.  And thanks to Zoom, we were able to take the presentations and turn them into our very own episodes of Shark Tank.

I just finished editing episode two (fun fact: did you know a Shark Tank pitch for the actual show is 45 minutes long, and then gets edited down to approximately 11 minutes?) and am eager to send that to the teachers.  Tomorrow is the final episode of Shark Tank Week which means I have one final 6+hour editing session ahead of me!  Is it worth it?  I think so!

P.S.  To see these kids present is amazing.  I don't think I could have done this when I was in 6th grade!

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