It looks like we have some future inventors and entrepreneurs on our hands at Stillwater Elementary!

On Wednesday, Dec. 13, a group of fifth grade entrepreneurs hosted their own version of the ABC show “Shark Tank.”

“Shark Tank” is a reality television show where entrepreneurs bring their ideas to “sharks,” or investors. The contestants try to convince the sharks to invest in their idea and if more than one shark wants to invest, they place bids and let the entrepreneurs choose the best offer.

Over the course of ten weeks, the young entrepreneurs in the WSWHE BOCES after-school 3D printing class were tasked with solving problems within their school. How did they do it? They designed and 3D printed five different prototypes, bringing the solutions to those problems to life. As a culmination of the class, the students presented and pitched their inventions to three “sharks,” also known as Elementary Principal Paul Morcone, Assistant Principal Clint Froschauer and a grandparent of one of the students, Mr. Pascucci.

The inventions included:

• A housekeeping robot that cleans house for you, program it to do chores and it gets you coffee.
• A delivery system that could be marketed to schools to deliver items to classrooms.
• A staple guard goes inside of a stapled and prevents you from stapling your finger.
• A safe place locker to safely secure valuables in a school locker.
• The MEM locker system – a locker that is purchased as a whole and includes a safe place for items.

All of the inventions were a success and received numerous offers from the sharks.

“Not only were the students able to apply engineering skills in order to build their inventions, but they also had to develop a business plan to go along with it, which was a first-time learning experience for them all,” Morcone said.

The 3-D Digital Design and Duplication class is part of WSWHE BOCES STEM Integration Program.

Teams:

• “Housekeeping Robot” – Matthew Lutz, Miranda Price, Sofia Pemiciaro and Coldon McDonagh
• “Delivery System” – Carlo Giso, Kaylee Festa, Sydney Martin and Steven Berry
• “Staple Guard” – Caitlyn Coy, Jackie Cutting and Christie Ghorayeb
• “Safe Place Locker” – Aden Wickham, Decker Carpenter and Samuel Estill
• “MEM Locker System” – Eva Thompson, Mina Pascucci and Meredith Yager