Natural dog topping, a décor app, musical sleep mask, fresh pasta meals, a lit-up toilet, shoe covers, a positive-affirmation mirror and a swimming watch were amongst the 180 product pitches by 250 sixth graders in Butler Middle School’s first-ever Shark Tank.

The event wasn't just about presenting a product idea. Students had to identify their target market, calculate production costs, and determine a selling price that would generate a profit. They conducted competitor research, highlighted their product’s uniqueness, figured out the necessary startup capital, and chose the best places to sell their products. They then presented their products to judges, answering questions and being evaluated on their knowledge, advertising strategies, prototypes, presentations and more.

One of the students, Bea Minton, had recently moved to Utah from Alabama and pitched her product called Long Doh.

“I love playing with Play Doh, but I'll play with it one time, and then, a few days later, it’s hard,” Bea said. “I want to be able to play with it as long as I want to. So, I looked at a lot of different ideas of what people have done in this past, and I put all of those together to make a nontoxic mix because a lot of them had harmful chemicals in them. When I saw that, it was weird for me, because why not just make it out of natural things? So, I put together all the natural things together and it has stayed soft.”

It took Bea about a week to achieve the right consistency for her Long Doh prototype.

“I learned to not give up, sometimes it's hard to figure out all the different things, but I wanted to keep going,” she said. 

After developing the prototype, Bea worked on her business plan, using guidance from her college and career awareness teacher, Missy Hamilton, and practiced her presentation.

“This is my first business proposal; I liked learning what all is involved,” she said. “I want to be my own business owner and open my own restaurant one day.”

After a two-hour final round of presentations, Bea took first place, followed by classmate Max McNall with the Ski Brake Buddy in second place. Vivienne Durand’s Smoosher Moosher trash compactor was third, Harper Halverson’s Pack Perfect cosmetics was fourth, and Marcus Jensen’s Purple Platypus Custom Cocoa was fifth. The top presenters received trophy night lights, made in the school’s MakerSpace.

The event was part of the students’ business and marketing unit in their career cluster.

“The students learned about marketing, they put together a business plan, they came up with the idea and created a prototype, they figured out the financials of how much it cost to build one, how much they wanted to sell it for, and what the retail price was going to be. They had to research their competitors. They had to figure out if they were going to have employees and how they could afford to pay them and provide them with health insurance and other benefits,” Hamilton said about the month-long project. “It was eye-opening for them. They learned the concepts and applied them. I wanted to have this be relevant, but this even exceeded my expectations.”

The Shark Tank event wasn’t just about business and marketing skills, though.

“It’s part of learning how to communicate, getting ideas across, problem solving. It’s those soft skills we have to learn in our lifetime and what better way to do it than doing it in a public presentation with something they have a passion or enjoy?” Hamilton said. “The best part was seeing kids who don't normally get to shine. Some kids lit it on fire. Not every unit we study speaks to every kid, but some units do. So, it was really fun to see them find their passion and find their place with this one.”

Hamilton also appreciated the help she received from Sydney Pierce, Cottonwood Heights' business development specialist, who arranged volunteer judges.

“It was great to be able to partner with businesses, business community members and local elected officials with this project. I had some directed questions for the judges, but then they took off. They understood the assignment and came up with their own relevant questions on the students’ level and understanding. It was great that the preliminary and finals judges gave so much of their time and commitment to this Shark Tank,” she said. 

Principal Bryan Rudes said many parents attended the event to support their children during the preliminary and final rounds.

“I love it gave the opportunity for families to come in and for us to highlight what their students are doing,” he said. “It really gave a visual to what's going on here, the teaching Missy is doing day in and day out.”

The course curriculum also includes agriculture, manufacturing, transportation, distribution and logistics, engineering and technology, cosmetology, tourism, arts, audiovisual tech and communication, law, public safety, corrections and security and health.

Hamilton said the Shark Tank event serves as a springboard for the rest of the finance unit.

“We're going to take this experience, and launch into personal finance — checking and savings,” she said. “We're going to play a stock market game. It will give us a baseline of how to be smart in our economy.”

For Bea, the experience was about more than just business and communication skills.

“The best part of it has been meeting all the other people who are doing this,” she said. “I’ve been making better relationships and cheering them on.”λ