Unit 5: Persuasive Communication · 5, 10, & 12 March 2026
The investors at work.
The final activity of Unit 5 was a Shark Tank competition. Each student — or team of students — designed an original product to solve a real everyday problem, built a business case around it, and pitched it to the class over three presentation days: March 5, 10, and 12.
The class served as investors, each holding 300 ESL Bucks to distribute across the products they found most persuasive. They could not invest in their own product, had to meet daily investment minimums, and could adjust their portfolio all the way up to the final lock-in on Day 3. Some students took the portfolio management very seriously.
Angela, Ann, and Lori thought she knew what to expect. They were wrong.
Eleven Innovative Products
The products were creative, specific, and in several cases genuinely marketable. Jung pitched a Smart AI Fridge that scans barcodes, tracks expiration dates, and suggests recipes based on what’s inside. Banu designed LightPack, a weight-sensing backpack strap built to prevent back pain before it starts — her closing slide read “Join Us in Preventing Pain — Not Just Treating It.” Leslie and Karina opened their NeuroDream pitch with a simple, honest statement: “During perimenopause, we struggle to sleep.” Their product: earcovers engineered specifically for women waking up several times a night.
Maria and Vivi pitched Feet-ures, heated health-monitoring socks with a companion app — and brought props. Yulianna presented BrickBuddy, a Lego cleaner gentle enough not to disassemble a Millennium Falcon. Sasha and Stefanie pitched VanishWand, a portable ultrasonic stain remover, complete with a detailed valuation and projection slide. Arsenia introduced ChromaRoot, a melanin-reactivation shampoo for graying hair, walking investors through manufacturing costs, retail price, and a 350% markup with quiet confidence. Ira and Lily S. invented Magic Chip, a micro device that, when inserted in the ear canal, aids perfect pronunciation. Monica pitched ShadePro, a sun-protective hat for outdoor enthusiasts, citing 489,000 heat-related deaths worldwide every year as her hook.
Lisa, Mariana, and Flavia — three students who know firsthand what it feels like to want to speak English more fluently — pitched Fluent Anywhere, a language-fluency headband. And Jinny pitched Jinny’s Box, a personalized skincare subscription service, delivered worldwide in two weeks via her company’s own private cargo planes.
Banu pitches LightPack: a preventive health solution for back pain.
Leslie and Karina pitch NeuroDream, a designed for men & women who suffer from insomnia
Arsenia pitches ChromaRoot, a shampoo that irradiates grey hair by activating natural melanin in the scalp.
Maria and Vivi brought props for their Feet-ures pitch — heated, health-monitoring socks with a companion app.
Yulianna pitches BrickBuddy — the LEGO cleaner that won’t disassemble your Millennium Falcon.
Jung’s Smart AI Fridge scans barcodes, tracks expiration dates, and suggests recipes. The traffic light alert system was a nice touch.
Lisa, Mariana, and Flavia pitch Fluent Anywhere — a language fluency headband, designed by people who would love to have one.
Jinny’s Box, a personalized skin care subscription curated by a beauty expert, ships worldwide on her own fleet of cargo planes.
Anyone can have perfect pronunciation with Ira’s and Lily S.’s Magic Chip device
The Winners
When the ESL Bucks were tallied, the top three products were Jinny’s Box, Fluent Anywhere, and ChromaRoot. It is not hard to see why. All three spoke directly to what the investors in the room cared about most: the desire to speak English with confidence, and the desire to feel beautiful and vital as they get older. Good persuasion requires knowing your audience. These three did.
What We Saw
Ann and Lori have watched students learn English for a long time. What surprised them about these three days was not the English — it was everything else. The creativity of the products. The professionalism of the slides and the pitches. The confidence with which students stood up, made eye contact, handled investor questions, and delivered the persuasive techniques they had been studying for weeks.
They didn’t just learn about persuasion. They did it.
Congratulations to every entrepreneur in the room — and especially to Jinny; Lisa, Mariana, Flavia; and Arsenia, whose investors clearly believed in them.