General News
17 June, 2026
Students face the sharks
TIMBOON P-12 Year Five/Six students were thrown into the shark tank on Monday as they presented their innovative product ideas to three local judges from outside the school.
On Monday, June 15, Timboon P-12 enacted their own version of the popular television show Shark Tank, where hopeful entrepreneurs pitch their products to successful business executives for the potential of receiving investment.
In Timboon P-12’s version, students were asked to think of a problem relating to school or the agricultural sector, a potential solution to the problem and create a product which would address the solution.
Students did this throughout the term in their Information Communication Technology (ICT) classes, taking advantage of 3D modelling to bring their product to life.
Some of the ideas included classroom clarity, which was a product which would buzz when the classroom got too loud, egg inventory, which was a safe place for chickens to lay their eggs, collapse-a-pot, which was a gardening pot which would self-water on a timer, and a robot bin, which would auto collect rubbish from the environment using a sensor.
Then three judges were brought in to assess the students’ work, taking on the role as sharks in the tank and handing out points to their favourite ideas.
The program was the brainchild of Timboon Agricultural Project (TAP) co-ordinator Andrea Vallance and previous ICT teacher Emily Hickman, with the project now in its second year.
Mrs Vallance said the original Shark Tank television show encouraged students to think of problems and solutions.
“We have this product that can be a solution or we have a problem that needs a product,” she said.
“It’s sort of like a chicken and egg thing, which angle do you come at it first.
“With a lot of the work that we do at the TAP, it’s encouraging the students to be confident, to talk to adults, to ask questions, and to think with an enquiring mind.
“It’s to see that even if they grow up in a small town like Timboon, the world is their oyster as long as they think and plan and don’t limit their horizons.”
The first shark was Sherri Symons, who launched the shark tank concept to the Year Five/Six students earlier in the term.
Ms Symons utilises cross-bred wool which she feels has been undervalued in the wool industry for a long time.
As a by-product in the lamb industry, she found herself with an abundance of cross-bred wool and designed wool pellets to be used by gardeners and in agriculture.
“They had this product they didn’t know what to do with, and they created a solution to getting rid of excess wool at a good price that they couldn’t sell otherwise,” Mrs Vallance said.
“We introduced Sherri to the students, she told them her story and she challenged them to think outside the square and come up with a way of solving a problem.
“She contextualised it for these guys and they can see that Sherri is just an average, normal person who had a problem she needed to solve.”
Ms Symons said she believed it was important to nurture young minds and encourage their ideas.
“I think it is really important that we support the younger generation in showing them that you’ve got to think outside the box with ideas and it’s okay to have crazy ideas to begin with,” she said.
“Sometimes you have to put yourself outside your comfort zone and giving them the inspiration to see someone who has gone out there and done something different is really important.
“We need to nurture these young minds because they have fantastic ideas and if we don’t encourage them then we’re going to lose those amazing ideas.”
The second judge, Josh McKenzie, previously attended Timboon P-12 and worked for Lochard Energy in Port Campbell.
He was part of the engineers without borders project team which visited Timboon P-12 students and worked with them to build prosthetic arms and water filtration devices as part of an engineering challenge.
Mr McKenzie said the program was a great way of being involved with the school community.
“You can see and feel the energy in the room so it’s just lovely to come back and give something back to the school and the community,” he said.
“It’s absolutely critical to try and get that lovely creative juice going in the students’ heads and just also part of bringing external people in is letting them see and think about what else is going on out in the world and what they could be.
“You can’t be what you can’t see so if they can openly get positive feedback on their ideas and try to encourage them to be creative, then that’s gold.
“There’s enough things that will stop them in the world so anything we can do to give them positive encouragement on being creative and open and vulnerable the better.”
The third judge, Peter Doolan, is a third-generation dairy farmer who has constantly been innovating technological and sustainability improvements on the farm.
He said with his own kids at Timboon P-12, he was trying to inspire the next generation of kids to seek a future in agriculture.
“The ag sector is getting pretty technologically advanced in the last 10-20 years and there’s a lot of research going on and a lot of data collecting to make better decisions in farm businesses that’ll lead to a more productive and more sustainable future in ag,” he said.
“Having young people come through the industry and bringing all that tech savviness and innovation helps.
“I think, especially in the next few years, there’s a big future in ag and there’s going to be more technical roles with all the innovation and AI going on.”
Current ICT teacher Lisa Pechotsch said the shark tank program encouraged students to get hands-on with their learning.
“It’s really hands-on learning and they’re getting real world exposure to how someone can be innovative and come up with a product that can actually solve a problem,” she said.
“Many of the students are actually looking at putting their creations into competitions from here onwards as well, so that gives them that opportunity to branch out from here to other competitions that they might be able to take part in.
“It’s really hands-on, it’s really engaging and the kids love using the computers and using them for a real project that they can see an outcome for and have a competition.”
Students, teachers and parents who attended were able to vote for their favourite innovation with the People’s Choice Award, which went to Milla and Eliza for their egg inventory idea.
The winner of the day as decided by the sharks went to Lexi, Edie and Luci for their netball solution.
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