The Shark Tank project brings together 11th grade English, History, and Math (Integrated Math III) to explore concepts of exponential growth and programming, and analyze how society has responded the four Industrial Revolutions.

Throughout the course of this project, teams harnessed the power of industry 4.0 through the use of a “chatbot” integrated into a website to articulate their understanding of their industry and it’s growth through the four industrial revolutions as well as to make a case for its continued growth in the future.

Students developed, prepared, and marketed an investment plan to pitch to our Shark Tank audience on an industry of the groups’ choosing. Students demonstrated their knowledge of each Industrial Revolution and had their chatbot explain how the inventions and industrial breakthroughs reflect that age. In other words, their project literally spoke for itself.

Key Academic Skills and Content:

ELA:

• CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.11-12.1 Write arguments to support claims in an analysis of substantive topics or texts, using valid reasoning and relevant and sufficient evidence
• CCSS-ELA-SPEAKING & LISTENING 11-12 4.b Plan and present an argument that: supports a precise claim; provides a logical sequence for claims, counterclaims, and evidence; uses rhetorical devices to support assertions (e.g., analogy, appeal to logic through reasoning, appeal to emotion or ethical belief); uses varied syntax to link major sections of the presentation to create cohesion and clarity; and provides a concluding statement that supports the argument presented.

Math:

• CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.HSF.LE.A.1 Distinguish between situations that can be modeled with linear functions and with exponential functions.
• CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.HSF.LE.A.2 Construct linear and exponential functions, including arithmetic and geometric sequences, given a graph, a description of a relationship, or two input-output pairs (include reading these from a table).
• CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.HSF.LE.A.3 Observe using graphs and tables that a quantity increasing exponentially eventually exceeds a quantity increasing linearly, quadratically, or (more generally) as a polynomial function.
• CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.HSF.LE.B.5 Interpret the parameters in a linear or exponential function in terms of a context.

Social Science:

• California Social Science Standard 11.2 Students analyze the relationship among the rise of industrialization, large-scale rural-to-urban migration, and massive immigration from Southern and Eastern Europe.
• California Social Science Standard 11.1.4 4. Examine the effects of the Civil War and Reconstruction and of the industrial revolution, including demographic shifts and the emergence in the late nineteenth century of the United States as a world power
  • 1. Know the effects of industrialization on living and working conditions.
  • 2. Describe the changing landscape, including the growth of cities linked by industry and trade, and the development of cities divided according to race, ethnicity, and class.
  • 4. Analyze the effect of urban political machines and responses to them by immigrants and middle-class reformers.
  • 5. Discuss corporate mergers that produced trusts and cartels and the economic and political policies of industrial leaders.
  • 6. Trace the economic development of the United States and its emergence as a major industrial power, including its gains from trade and the advantages of its physical geography.
  • 7. Analyze the similarities and differences between the ideologies of Social Darwinism and Social Gospel

Final Products:

• Industry Website
• Propaganda Posters (Player Piano-Kurt Vonnegut novel tie in)
• “Chatbot” coded by students to respond to questions about their industry, as their industry related to the four industrial revolutions (developed in history and ELA)
• Exponential Growth Calculator (only required of students enrolled in Math III or Business Math classes)
• Regression/Exponential Growth Graphs (only required of students enrolled in Math III or Business Math classes)
• Shark Tank Pitch (Utilizing all other project components to create a case for industry growth and investment).

Suggested Duration: five weeks

 

 

Created with the support of the California Department of Education California Career Pathways Trust