Students in business classes at Malden High, such as Stocks & Bonds and Business Management, participate in classwide competitions with business pitches, competing to win a reward. This is a nationwide lesson that lots of students in their business classes end up doing.
Students recognize Shark Tank as a popular television show where entrepreneurs get the opportunity to pitch their business ideas to a group of investors in hopes of securing funding in exchange for equity.
Over the years, the show has expanded beyond television and been brought to schools all across the U.S, giving students the opportunity to develop their creativity, problem-solving skills, and entrepreneurial thinking.
It’s difficult to determine who specifically pitched the Shark Tank idea into schools, but around 2010, shortly after the series was released, business and economic educators were the first to adapt the concept of bringing Shark Tank into classes.
David West, a teacher of Business Management & Ownership at Mission Bay High School in San Diego, California, wrote his own blog about bringing this concept to his school “while watching what was then a new TV show called Shark Tank,” explained West.
West ended up presenting the show to his students, “When I showed my business students one episode, they begged to watch more. At that point, I knew I had something. So, to capitalize on my students’ enthusiasm, I created a project out of it.”
The idea quickly spread because it provided students with a hands-on process of developing their “own” business, practicing public speaking, teamwork, innovation, and real-world business skills. Rather than just learning about entrepreneurship from their curriculum, students are able to experience what it’s like to create and present their own business to an audience.
This same opportunity has arrived at Malden High School. 2023 marked the first time representatives from outside banks visited Business Management classes at Malden High and showed students how useful their products were. This initiative was introduced by Business teacher Kelle Griffin, but she is not the first teacher to start it, as Business teacher Tim Lane likes to describe how she “revived it.”
Griffin listed the winners, “Stoneham Bank loan officers and executives chose senior Nick Duggan’s travel itinerary app as the winner in 2023; Kailey Bae’s repurposed clothing company, Resewn, won in 2024; and this year, Ruth Mekonnen and Taya Rubin-Wilson impressed the sharks with their sustainable fashion brand for teens, Flora & Fabric. The winning entrepreneurs take home a $250 cash prize, courtesy of Stoneham Bank.”
Lane explained, “In an entrepreneur class we used to run a few years ago that’s no longer a class, we did pitch competitions and brought people in to rank them.”
Lane continued, “We were working with NFTE, which is the network for teaching entrepreneurship, and the kids entered into a regional competition, which was held in Babson or Bentley College. If they moved on from there, they could go to nationals, which was in New York.”
Shark Tank has influenced Malden High School since 2010, as a now-retired teacher, Ms. Buckley brought it to Malden High in the entrepreneurship class and left Lane in charge from 2010 to 2020, when COVID took over. Lane elaborated, “After we came back from COVID, Ms. Griffin brought it back in ‘23.”
Lane now holds a stock competition in his Stocks & Bonds classes. Instead of inviting outside sources to come in and rank them, he lets his other students judge the pitches.
As Malden High continues to expand opportunities for student learning, the introduction of Shark Tank is a representation of connecting classroom education with real-world experiences.
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