Slide outline for Lesson 7.11. Ten slides, one day. Slide 3, the running order, stays up for the entire pitch block. Keep the slide count low on purpose: on pitch day the students are the content and a projector should not be competing with them.
FACS Shark Tank
- Unit 7, Lesson 7.11, Topic 7.2
- Ten teams. Sixty seconds each. Four judges
- [the date]
Teacher notes
Image: a plain title card, large type, no clip art. Something that would look right on a program.
Room set before the bell: judge table facing the class, posters on the counter in running order, timer with a sound, audience in rows or a horseshoe. Judges arrive five minutes early and get the briefing, the packet, water, and three spoken instructions. Team folders back at the door with criteria 3, 4, and 5 scored.
Four adults are here to listen to you
- Be the reason they come back
Teacher notes
This is on the board as students walk in, with the running order. There is no written do now today. Use the first four minutes for the 60-second opening to judges and class, which does three things: names what the class did in six days, states the rules out loud so judges and students hear them at the same time, and hands off to team 1 by name. Do not make a speech. The students are the point.
The running order
| # | Team |
|---|---|
| 1 | |
| 2 | |
| 3 | |
| 4 | |
| 5 | |
| 6 | |
| 7 | |
| 8 | |
| 9 | |
| 10 |
Teacher notes
Fill in by hand before the bell and leave it up all period. A second printed copy sits on the judge table.
The rules
- 60 seconds to pitch
- 90 seconds of judge questions
- 20 seconds to swap
- The timer is run by a student, and the timer is honored
Teacher notes
Decide the per-team time from your team count the night before and write it on the judge briefing. Do not do timing math in front of four adults. At ten teams, cut questions to 70 seconds.
Everybody in this room is working
- Score every team on your sheet: four criteria each
- One thing you learned from watching somebody else
- Four award votes, and one of them defended with evidence
- The sheet is collected and it counts
Teacher notes
Say this before team 1 pitches. Twenty-seven students with nothing to do for 25 minutes is a behavior problem. Twenty-seven students holding a score sheet is a room full of judges.
The six parts, for the judges and for you
| # | Part | Seconds |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Hook | 10 |
| 2 | Problem | 10 |
| 3 | Solution | 15 |
| 4 | Who it is for | 10 |
| 5 | The money | 10 |
| 6 | The ask | 5 |
Teacher notes
Judges were briefed on this two days ago, so a judge who knows the structure asks a question inside it. Leave this up during the pitches if the room has a second screen; otherwise show it once and move to slide 3.
Three questions a judge might ask anybody
- What is your margin on one?
- Who already solves this problem, and why would somebody pick you?
- What is the first thing you would do with the money?
Teacher notes
These are on the judge briefing. Use one yourself only if a judge asks nothing or a team's 90 seconds stalls.
Judges are conferring. You are voting.
- Most Useful. I would actually use this
- Best Numbers. The money made the most sense
- Best Pitch. Sixty seconds, clear, I looked up
- Most Likely To Actually Work. This could really happen
- One vote defended: "I voted ___ for ___ because they said ___"
Teacher notes
Three minutes. Two students who already pitched tally the class votes on the board while the judges confer at the side table.
The awards
- The judges announce theirs, one sentence each on why
- Then the class's four winners
- They are often different. That happens in real life every day
Teacher notes
Hand the four cards to the judges and let them announce their own. Applaud every award the same. Naming the difference between the panel's picks and the room's picks out loud is part of the lesson, not an apology for it.
Six days ago
- Most of you had never said a price out loud to an adult who was not in your family
- Today every one of you did it in front of four of them, with something you made
- And answered a question nobody warned you about
- That is the job. That is what the job actually is
- Tomorrow: the folder, and what you can do now that you could not do in September
Teacher notes
Say it, do not read it. Then thank the judges by name, out loud, in front of the students. Collect the audience sheets and the judge packets at the door.