# Project 07: FACS Shark Tank

**Unit:** Unit 7, Launch: Career Readiness and FACS Shark Tank (capstone)
**Topic:** 7.2 FACS Shark Tank
**Days:** 7 project periods (Lessons 7.6 to 7.11, days 173 to 179 of the year), plus the portfolio in Lesson 7.12 on day 180
**Teams:** three students, with the roles CEO, CFO, and CMO
**Scored with:** `Rubric 07 - Career Readiness and Shark Tank.md`, criteria 3 to 6 (16 of the rubric's 24 points). Criteria 1 and 2 belong to Topic 7.1 and were scored in Lesson 7.5.

## Standards this project assesses

NYS module lines:
- NYS IGLR 5. Career Pathways b) Examine the skills needed to become an entrepreneur
- NYS IGLR 4. Financial Readiness b) Create and follow a budget
- NYS IGLR 3. Employability b) Show understanding of interpersonal dynamics
- NYS IGLR 3. Employability c) Demonstrate effective communication skills
- NYS IGLR 2. Goal Setting d) Design, implement, and evaluate a plan to attain a desired goal

CTE theme lines:
- CTE PSI 2. Design Process (Proactive) a) a. Defining the problem being addressed
- CTE PSI 2. Design Process (Proactive) a) d. Brainstorming and examining possible solutions
- CTE PSI 2. Design Process (Proactive) a) f. Developing and constructing a prototype or model of the selected design
- CTE PSI 2. Design Process (Proactive) a) g. Testing and evaluating the prototype and model against the design criteria and constraints
- CTE PSI 1. Problem Solving e) Demonstrate personal development of problem-solving skills through practice of these skills in a variety of classroom applications
- CTE CIR 3. Workplace Communication f) Demonstrate effective communication skills in a group setting to accomplish a task
- CTE CIR 1. Communication f) Demonstrate personal development of communication skills through practice of these skills in a variety of classroom applications
- CTE FCL 4. Buying Goods and Services c) Develop a spending and savings plan (budget) based on income and expenses
- CTE CCO 1. The Work World a) Describe reasons for working in paid and unpaid work environments
- CTE CCO 5. Community Needs Assessment c) Explore the role adolescents can play in providing for the needs and enhancing the lives of community members

NYS FACS Learning Standard 3 (Intermediate), Key Idea: Students will understand and be able to manage personal resources of talent, time, energy, and money and make effective decisions in order to balance their obligations to work, family, and self.; Performance Indicators: Students are able to budget their time and money; Students identify their own abilities and interests as possible guides to career choice.

CDOS: Standard 1 Career Development; Standard 2 Integrated Learning; Standard 3a Universal Foundation Skills: Thinking Skills, Managing Resources, Managing Information, Interpersonal Skills, Basic Skills.

National FCS 3.0: 3.1.2 Examine openings for jobs and for starting a business.

The state's own Individual Growth and Life Readiness module names this project as its Problem Solving and Innovation illustrative activity: small groups "develop entrepreneurship plans and make prototype food, textile, or human services products," then pitch "to a panel representing potential investors," and "classmates and investors vote on which entrepreneurs to back." This project sheet is that activity written as a procedure.

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# The project sheet (student version)

## The scenario

You are three people with one business idea and seven class periods.

On Friday, four adults are going to sit at a table in this room. One of them runs this building. One of them is a teacher who is not me. One of them does not work here at all. They did not have to come, and they came anyway, because somebody told them that students in this building built businesses.

You get 60 seconds to pitch to them. Then they get 90 seconds to ask you anything.

You are not pretending. Your numbers have to be real numbers. Your customers have to be people you actually asked. Whatever you hand them has to be something you actually made. The one thing you cannot do in this project is make it up.

## The one rule that makes this a FACS project

**Your idea has to connect to at least one of the six things this class covered this year, and your team has to say which one and why, in one sentence.**

The six: **food** (Units 1 and 6), **money** (Unit 2), **family** (Unit 3), **home** (Unit 4), **clothing** (Unit 5), **work** (Unit 7).

You have spent a year learning to cook, measure, cost a meal, budget, read a label, sew, repair, design a room, plan for a child, and price a meal for thirty people. Your business should use one of those. If your idea does not use anything you learned this year, it is somebody else's project.

Examples of the connection sentence:
- "Our idea is a school lunch upgrade kit, and it connects to Unit 1 because we cost every item per serving from the circular."
- "Our idea is a clothing repair table at the spring fair, and it connects to Unit 5 because we can actually sew a button and a hem."
- "Our idea is a bedroom organizing service, and it connects to Unit 4 because we measure the room and draw it to scale first."
- "Our idea is a babysitter activity box, and it connects to Unit 3 because we know what a four-year-old can actually do."

## What your team turns in

Six things. Four go in the team folder and two happen in the room.

| # | Deliverable | Who owns it | Where it lands |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | **The business brief, one page.** The problem, who has it, your product or service, one thing that makes it different, and the FACS module connection sentence. | CEO | Team folder, end of Lesson 7.10 Day 2 |
| 2 | **The customer research.** Three completed customer interviews with the answers in the customer's own words, plus the line that says what the interviews changed about the idea. | CMO | Team folder, end of Lesson 7.10 Day 2 |
| 3 | **The numbers page.** Unit cost line by line, price, margin per unit, any fixed cost, break-even in units, and a one-month projection with a reason for the unit count. Signed by the CFO. | CFO | Team folder, end of Lesson 7.10 Day 2 |
| 4 | **The five-panel deck or poster.** Panel 1 the problem. Panel 2 the solution. Panel 3 the customer. Panel 4 the numbers. Panel 5 the ask. | CMO, with CFO on panel 4 and CEO on panel 5 | On the counter in running order, end of Lesson 7.10 Day 2 |
| 5 | **The prototype or sample.** Something a judge can hold, read, or look at, built with a skill from this course. | CMO, everyone builds | On the counter with the poster |
| 6 | **The 60-second pitch.** All three of you speak part of it. Hook, problem, solution, who it is for, the money, the ask. | CEO leads, all three speak | Live, Lesson 7.11 |

## What counts as a prototype

Anything a judge can hold, read, or look at. It does not have to work. It has to exist. Pick the one your idea calls for, and it has to use a skill from this year:

- **A sewn sample or a mended item.** A hand-sewn pouch, a repaired seam, a hemmed leg, a patch. Unit 5.
- **A dish or a printed costed menu.** One item plated, or a menu card with real prices per serving from the circular. Units 1 and 6.
- **A scale floor plan or a room layout.** Graph paper, measured, to scale, with the furniture drawn. Unit 4.
- **A price sheet or a budget.** Built like the reports you wrote in the investor challenge. Unit 2.
- **An activity kit card.** What is in the box, what age it is for, what the child does with it. Unit 3.
- **A two-screen sketch of an app or a web page.** Hand drawn on two sheets, with every button labeled. Unit 7.
- **A labeled drawing or a paper mock-up,** for anything that does not fit the six above.

A drawing counts. A cardboard mock-up counts. A written service card with what you do, what it costs, and when you are available counts. What does not count is nothing.

## Day by day

| Lesson | Day | What your team does | What has to be done by the end |
|---|---|---|---|
| 7.6 | 173 | Learn the four questions. Find the problem behind five real businesses. Learn revenue, cost, profit. | Nothing to hand in. Write one real problem on the exit card |
| 7.7 | 174 | Scan the six FACS areas for problems. Brainstorm 20 ideas with no criticism. Run the three-question filter. Pick one. Assign CEO, CFO, CMO. | **Gate: the signed filter sheet with the idea, the FACS module, and the one-sentence reason.** No sheet, no next step |
| 7.8 | 175 | Build the customer profile. Interview three stand-in customers with the same three questions. Write what changed. Then the whole class works the numbers example together. | The customer profile and three interviews written in the customer's own words |
| 7.9 | 176 | Learn the six parts of a 60-second pitch. Critique the teacher's pitch. Draft yours. Time it twice. | The six-box pitch draft with two recorded times |
| 7.10 | 177 | Finish your own numbers page. Plan the five panels on paper. Build panels 1 to 3. Build the prototype. | **Gate: the planner sheet signed by the teacher before anything goes on the poster.** Signed numbers page |
| 7.10 | 178 | Finish panels 4 and 5 and the prototype. Rehearse three times standing, timed. Peer review with another team. Revise two things. | **The team folder is handed in: brief, customer research, numbers page, planner. Criteria 3, 4, and 5 are scored from it tonight** |
| 7.11 | 179 | Pitch. 60 seconds. Then 90 seconds of judge questions. Score every other team on the audience sheet. Awards. | **Criterion 6 is scored live** |
| 7.12 | 180 | Put a copy of the pitch materials and the numbers page in your own Career Readiness portfolio, with the rest of the year. | The portfolio checklist, signed |

## Team roles: what each one owns

Nobody is the boss of the other two. Every role does real work and every role's name gets said out loud on Friday.

**CEO: owns the idea, the pitch, and the clock.**
- Writes the business brief and the ask.
- Says the hook and the ask in the pitch.
- Calls the time: says out loud how many minutes are left, twice a period.
- Decides when the team is arguing instead of working, and picks.
- On Friday: takes the first judge question unless the team assigned somebody else.

**CFO: owns every number.**
- Builds the numbers page: unit cost, price, margin, break-even, projection.
- Signs the numbers page. The signature means the arithmetic is right.
- Draws panel 4 so it can be read from ten feet.
- Says the money sentence in the pitch.
- On Friday: can answer "what is your margin" without looking at the poster.

**CMO: owns the customer, the look, and the prototype.**
- Runs the three customer interviews and writes the answers in the customer's words.
- Lays out the five panels and writes panels 1, 2, and 3.
- Builds the prototype or leads the building of it.
- Says the problem and who it is for in the pitch.
- On Friday: can name one real person who said they would buy it, and what they said.

**All three:** know all four numbers, speak part of the pitch, and can say the FACS module connection sentence.

## Where you get to choose

- **The problem.** Yours, from your own life, found in your own scan.
- **The idea.** Product or service, either one.
- **Which FACS module it connects to,** and how.
- **What the prototype is.** Sewn, cooked, drawn, measured, written, or built.
- **Your price.** You set it, using what your customers said.
- **Your ask.** What you actually want, and it can be small and real: twenty dollars of supplies, a table at the spring event, permission to run it for one week, a pre-order list of ten names.
- **Poster or trifold or five taped sheets.** Whichever your team can finish.
- **Who says which part of the pitch,** and in what proportion.
- **Which artifact from this project goes in your own portfolio** in Lesson 7.12.

## ELL and IEP supports built into this project

These are part of the project, not exceptions to it. Nothing here lowers a score.

- **The picture panel template.** Any team may build all five panels as an image plus one sentence instead of paragraphs. It is offered to every team and it often makes a better poster. Panel 4's numbers are numbers in every language.
- **Interviews and quotes in the home language.** A customer interview may be conducted in Turkish, Portuguese, or Spanish and written down in that language, with one line translated for panel 3. A quote left in the customer's own language on the poster, with a translation next to it, is stronger evidence than a translated one, and it scores at the same level.
- **Sentence starters in four languages,** printed on the planner sheet and in `Vocabulary 07.md`, for all six pitch parts, the three interview questions, the break-even sentence, and the module connection sentence. Marked **[check with a native speaker]** until a native speaker or the ENL teacher has read them.
- **A written pitch read aloud by a teammate.** A student who will not speak in front of the room writes their part of the pitch and a teammate reads it while that student stands with the team. This is a named accommodation on the rubric, not an exception, and criterion 6 does not cap the score for it. Set it up in writing on the Lesson 7.10 planner sheet, not on Friday morning.
- **A pitch to the panel with no audience.** A student or a whole team may pitch to the judge table in the hallway or before class with nobody else in the room, scored on the same descriptors.
- **A recorded or written pitch.** A student may record their part as audio or hand in the written pitch, and criterion 6 is scored from that plus the team's live delivery.
- **Calculators for everyone, always,** with no permission needed.
- **Pre-labeled sheets.** The numbers page, the panel planner, and the interview sheet all arrive with the lines named, so the organizing work is done and the thinking work is what is left.
- **Teacher-operated tools.** The box cutter, the iron, and the sewing machine are run by the teacher for every student, so nobody has to be singled out.
- **Extended build time at lunch** on both Lesson 7.10 days, room open, for anybody who asks.
- **A team of three, by teacher assignment.** Nobody is picked last and nobody carries the project alone.

## How it is scored

`Rubric 07 - Career Readiness and Shark Tank.md`, criteria 3 to 6, four levels each, 16 points. It is in your hand from Lesson 7.7 and nothing on it should surprise you.

| Criterion | What it scores | Scored when |
|---|---|---|
| 3. The business brief and the customer research | The problem, the FACS module connection, and three real interviews with what they changed | From the team folder, end of Lesson 7.10 Day 2 |
| 4. The numbers | Unit cost, price, margin, break-even in units, and a projection with a defended unit count | From the team folder, end of Lesson 7.10 Day 2 |
| 5. The prototype or sample | The object, and the one-sentence naming of which unit's skill built it | From the object, end of Lesson 7.10 Day 2 |
| 6. The pitch | 60 seconds, six parts, all three speaking, the money said out loud, and an answer to an unplanned question | Live, Lesson 7.11 |

Your team fills the self-assessment row on the rubric before the teacher scores. A team whose self-scores land within one point of the teacher's on every criterion earns the Exceeds level on criterion 3 if the rest of that row is met. Honest self-assessment is part of the work.

The project score goes in the Labs and projects category, which is 40 percent of the course grade. A late folder is accepted with a one-level drop on one criterion, never a zero. A student absent on Friday is scored on criteria 3, 4, and 5 with the team and on criterion 6 from their written pitch part, per the course grading plan. Nobody loses project points for being sick.

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# The no-lab and no-guest versions

**No kitchen, no sewing machine.** No prototype in this project requires either one. A food idea becomes a costed menu card with a drawing or a photograph. An apparel idea becomes a hand-sewn sample, a drawing with fabric swatches taped on, or a mended item brought from home. If the room has no lab at all, every team uses the drawing, mock-up, floor plan, price sheet, kit card, or service card route. The prototype menu is written so that a FACS classroom with tables, paper, rulers, and a scrap bin can run this project completely.

**No guests on pitch day.** The panel becomes the teacher plus three students drawn from teams that have already pitched, at the judge table, with the same judge sheet. Run the pitches in two halves and swap the student judges at the midpoint. Everything else is identical: the timer, the audience scoring sheet, the four award categories. A student defending a rubric score out loud is doing harder work than a student pitching, so this version is not a lesser one. Do not cancel pitch day for lack of guests.

**Fewer than three students on a team.** A pair takes CEO and CFO and splits the CMO work; the prototype requirement does not change. A single student, which should only happen in a very small class, does the whole project at reduced scale: two customer interviews, three panels, and a 45-second pitch.

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# Teacher notes on the project

- **The gates are the thing that makes this finishable in seven periods.** The signed filter sheet at the end of Lesson 7.7, the signed planner sheet in Lesson 7.10 Day 1, and the signed numbers page. No gate, no next step. Say all three out loud on day one of the project and hold them.
- **Filter question 2 is the question that saves the project:** "What are you physically handing a judge on Friday?" Ask it of every team on Lesson 7.7 and again in the Lesson 7.10 Day 1 scan. A team that cannot answer it in one sentence has an idea, not a project, and it needs narrowing on the spot.
- **Teams of three, assigned by the teacher.** Four means one student watches. Student-chosen teams mean somebody is picked last on the last week of school.
- **Do not let every team pick a snack business.** Push two or three toward clothing repair, room organization, childcare, or a service, and name the unit skill they already have. The module connection rule is what makes this a FACS capstone and not a generic business unit, and it only works if the modules are spread across the room.
- **The honest failure is a real pitch and it scores at Meets.** Every year one idea dies when the numbers arrive. "We tested this and here is why it does not work at this price" is the most grown-up pitch a team can give. Say so in Lesson 7.8 so a team knows the option exists before they need it.
- **Every team member knows all four numbers.** A judge will ask the CEO what the margin is. Build that into the Lesson 7.10 rehearsal: three times through, all three speaking, and the numbers said out loud each time.
- **The consumable cost of this project is about one poster board per team,** roughly $10.00 to $12.00 for a class, plus whatever comes out of the Unit 5 scrap bin. Everything else is already in the room from the other six units. That is worth saying to a principal.
- [Sal: build the judge list in September, not June. One administrator, one teacher, one parent, one business owner, asked in writing for 45 minutes on a named date. Send them the one-page briefing from `Handout 07.11` two days ahead.]
- [Sal: if your school has an FCCLA chapter or wants one, this project is a competitive event in everything but name. The state's own Financial and Consumer Literacy theme names an FCCLA Personal Finance Fair as its illustrative activity, and a pitch day with an outside panel is the same kind of thing. Worth one sentence in the syllabus.]