Learning Updates
- School of Innovation
Year 9 students brave the Shark Tank
The Year 9 focus for the term is on Economics and Business, respectful relationships, as well as speaking and listening. Our Year 9 students have worked in small groups to create a business idea, and create a business pitch/"Shark Tank" style presentation, asking for a loan of $40 to fund this business.
In this "Shark Tank" style presentation, the "sharks" consisted of at least three of the following:
- A year 9 staff member
- Local business owner/guest shark coming into the college
- Another staff member
- Year 10 students who engaged in this project in 2021
These "sharks" evaluated the student group's business idea and gave feedback on the idea. This was a very fun process with a lot of theatrics and business thinking from the students and the "sharks", much like the TV show.
The Year 9 Market Day will occur on June 14, between 11.30am and 1:30pm, at the front of the college. Students will be selling their
items and services, including food, drinks, music, games and prizes. Each stall is aiming to sell at least $41 worth of their product or service in order to pay back their loan, with $1 of interest. The rest of the profits will go to funding something that the whole Year 9 cohort will vote on (2021 cohort money purchased the 3D printers for the college!).
- Adam Zito, Year 9 Pedagogy Leader, School of Innovation
Year 9 students Hardit, Sumair and Will share their account of the "Shark Tank" experience:
The "Shark Tank" experience was one of the most memorable aspects of our term, and the process of creating this presentation was both tough and unfamiliar to us. We had to go into the "Shark Tank" and pitch our Market Day ideas to the "sharks", in order to get a $40 loan for our business/service. The "Shark Tank" was terrifying since we had to present to five "sharks". We picked up new vocabulary such as investment, budget, mark-up, percentage profit, gross profit, and multibuys. We are learning many skills about money, advertisement and voice. We would like to thank all of the guest "sharks" from our college community and from outside of Shepparton who came in.
- Hardit, Sumair and Will, Year 9, School of Innovation
Author Di Walker inspires aspiring writers
On the 5th of May, Di Walker came to our college to speak to the Year 9 students. Di is an author whose novel we are currently reading, titled ‘Unpacking Harper Holt’. She came to discuss the technical sides of writing a book, the anatomy of a book, how to find and work with publishers and editors, and she even told us about a couple of stories she’s currently writing.
For my friends and I, all aspiring authors who write for fun, this was thrilling. Being spoken to by Di Walker was the best thing that’s happened to me in a while. She suggested that we could ask one of our teachers if she could come back and speak solely with the students interested in writing, about more specific and influential mechanics of writing a book. Our teachers definitely agreed!
Hopefully, our staff are figuring out dates for her grand return that works for all. I can’t possibly explain how happy that would make me, and I’m so grateful that this opportunity has been presented to us. Thank you Di!
- Christine Smith, Year 9, School of Innovation
