FishTank FAQs

Our 2024 season launches with a virtual workshop on January 6th, 2024, and ends with our in-person Pitch Day on March 9th, 2024. While there are no mandatory events, we strongly encourage attendance at our virtual workshops. The selected finalists will also be expected to present their lightning pitches at Pitch Day.

No, they haven't...yet. Our board's vision is that FishTank evolves into a curriculum for classrooms. We are building our resources and network with DOE schools and homeschools.

The season launches in January with one of two virtual workshops during the 8-week season. These are scheduled for Saturdays, 9:30-11:00 am. They're not mandatory, but we highly recommend the team participate to get some face time and engage with our guest speakers. We'll always send a recap recording the following week.

We plan to schedule check-ins with each individual team and all the team coordinators before the deadlines to see how they're progressing on their submissions and if we're running into any conflicts or where we may need to offer more support. We end the season on March 9th with our in-person Pitch Day. On this day, five finalist teams will get to present their lightning pitch to a live audience and panel of judges. Winners will be presented with awards, including scholarships, after the judging.

MOST of the project work, brainstorming, and ideating, happens outside of these workshops and check-ins. Past teams have scheduled weekly meetings for a few hours. Others, like some of our homeschool participants, incorporate their FishTank project into their daily lessons. The amount of time and frequency depends on the teams' schedules, and especially the team coordinator's availability.

FishTank resources are accessible at all times online. This includes videos about the Engineering Design Process and team building. Teams get instructions on how to get to our competition website once we've confirmed their registrations. These resources also include a gallery of Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) who are open to connecting with students if they're interested in learning more about a specific topic or skill. Our FishTank team plans to send out messages and reminders on a weekly basis to help everyone stay on track.

Lastly, each team has a $200 fund to spend on their projects, whether towards prototyping or preparing for their presentations. We ask team coordinators to manage the expenses and then request reimbursements either throughout the competition or at the end when the final materials are submitted.