Dragon’s Den in the Classroom

Curriculum Goal

Collect qualitative data, as well as discrete and continuous quantitative data to answer questions of interest about a population, and organize the sets of data as appropriate, including using intervals.
Select from among a variety of graphs the type of graph best suited to represent various data sets and justify the choice of graph.
Display data in graphs with proper sources, titles, and labels, as well as appropriate scales.
Create an infographic about a data set, representing the data in appropriate ways, including in tables, histograms, and broken-line graphs. Incorporate other relevant information that aids in telling the story of the data.
Determine the mean and median, as well as identify the mode(s), if any, for various data sets involving whole numbers and decimal numbers. Explain what each of these measures indicates about the data.
Analyze different sets of data presented in various ways by asking and answering questions about the data, challenging preconceived notions and drawing conclusions.
Making convincing arguments/informed decisions about the data.

Read and represent whole numbers up to and including one million, using appropriate tools and strategies, and describe various ways they are used in everyday life

Introduce students to Dragon’s Den. Here is a video clip of two junior-aged girls pitching their business idea.
Introduce the project: Welcome to the Dragons’ Den, where you will become a young entrepreneur, creating, researching, and pitching your ideas to the panel of Dragons! Working on your own or in groups of two, you will create your own product or business idea, or you may expand upon an existing product or business. You will then collect data to determine what will make your product sell! You will use this evidence to create a full business proposal, including data and graphs, which you will pitch to the panel of Dragons to “gain funding for your idea.” This is a large project that will develop over many weeks. We will continue to work on it in small steps as we learn more about data management!
Present students with the project outline. Make sure students understand the length and depth of this project and that you will be working together to learn more about how to use data to develop their projects.
Over many weeks, students will come up with an idea, create and administer a survey for data collection, analyze their data, and create a 5- to 10-minute pitch.