Fifth-grade students at Lincoln Elementary School recently took on the role of entrepreneurs during a “Shark Tank” style enrichment project designed to make math meaningful, creative, and fun.
Led by fifth-grade accelerated teacher Kaitlyn Cannon, the month-long project brought together selected students from all fifth-grade classrooms to identify a problem within their school and develop innovative solutions. 
Working in small groups, students designed original products, built prototypes, and used real-world math skills to calculate costs before pitching their ideas to a panel of Sharks, who were their teachers.
The activity encouraged collaboration, critical thinking, and risk-taking as students discovered how math connects to real-life problem-solving.
“The goal was to inspire students to think outside the box, take risks, and discover that learning math can be both challenging and rewarding when it’s tied to something real,” Cannon said. “When students see how math applies beyond the classroom, their engagement and understanding deepen.”
Projects included Soft-a-Swing, an adjustable cushion that attaches to a swing; Soccer Strike, an indoor recess game; The Gravitifier, a 3D-printed safety feature that adds a stabilizing leg when a chair starts to lean; and the Fidget Name Tag, a silent sensory-friendly classroom tool.
Two teams, Soccer Strike and Fidget Name Tag, tied as Shark Tank champions and will be recognized with a certificate, pizza party, and trophy case display. Additional awards recognized creativity and teamwork, including “Best Marketer,” “Most Daring Invention,” and “CEO of the Tank” and more.
Students will continue working on collaborative math projects throughout the year to build on their problem-solving and teamwork skills.