Citizen Schools students recently had the opportunity to participate in our special Shark Tank event, which included four weeks of learning through a detailed set of modules called GoIT. Students who participated had the opportunity to learn about app development and pitched ideas to a panel of judges, including:

• Shout Out Loud, an free app designed to meet intersectional social justice and health needs

• B.I.G Changers, designed to help overcome language barriers within educational settings and conversations using native-language captions for video calls and screen sharing

• Moving Forward, to help everyone properly deal with anxiety and depression to mitigate unhealthy, unconscious coping mechanisms like skipping meals

• Happy app Blissful Yumm, a customizable delivery app which also donates money to charities as part of a user transaction

• Invest in Me, a gaming app that teaches users how to invest using stock simulation 

• An app enabling users to send money to someone who is homeless or living anywhere on the planet

GoIT centers around demystifying the world of STEM and sparking students' interest in technological fields of work. The program helps students connect technology to making a real and accessible impact on the world. Each week introduced a new component of app development via learning modules. These included:

1. STEM Skills Gap and Computer Science

2. The design thinking model

3. Identifying a problem

4. Wireframing and storyboarding for an app

To prepare for the Shark Tank event, students collaborated virtually and gained confidence in their creations during the month while honing specific social and emotional skill development. This was done utilizing Zoom's breakout room feature to work in small groups and share ideas, moving away from lecture-style learning models and more toward small-group peer-to-peer engagement. Throughout the design process, students actively supported one another by using the chat, sticky notes on jamboard, and constructive verbal criticism in real-time. Every GoIT session, students would share ideas and give each other feedback: Did their "big idea" express enough empathy? Was enough research done? 

Before leaving any space, students were invited and encouraged to share ideas. This consistency created a safe space for students to make mistakes and learn from them without fear. Students built community naturally even in this virtual space, focussing on:

1. Self-efficacy: how much a student believes they can succeed

2. Growth mindset: students' perception of whether they have the potential to influence change

3. Social awareness: how students consider the perspective of others and empathize with them as they are working collaboratively and independently

Then finally, the big finish, the big idea and pitch! The students had a blast while presenting their complete app outlines and pitches in our virtual "Shark Tank" event, just like the television show. Students advocated for their ideas, and control over hosting the Zoom call. They faced questions from a panel of judges and were invited to observe their classmates, often opting to stay and see all of the pitches.

Although our Citizen Schools judge panel at Winter Hill Community School was not made up of the big names Mark Cuban, Barbara Corcoran, Lori Greiner, Robert Herjavec, Daymond John, and Kevin O'Leary, our students prepared as if this were the real deal! A direct and meaningful result of this process was a significant boost in confidence for students.  We concluded with superlatives instead of ranked prizes to celebrate our students because each app was so incredibly unique. Students learned about real-world STEM applications through this fun project-centered mock game show, and they loved being the contestants.

If you are interested in seeing some of the fantastic student app design ideas, see Shark Tank Live here!