It’s sink or swim in the Hawk Tank

Members+of+the+strategy+club+pitched+their+ideas+to+teachers+in+the+lecture+hall+after+school+Wednesday.+

Aliza Porter

Members of the strategy club pitched their ideas to teachers in the lecture hall after school Wednesday.

Aliza Porter, Staff Reporter

Strategy club is a club where students express their creativity through building board games. The members of strategy club now have the opportunity to participate in their first “Hawk Tank” which is an imitation of Shark Tank, a show of entrepreneurs pitching their products to billionaires. In this case, students will pitch their board games to teachers after school Wednesday in the lecture hall.

“Originally, the idea started from a critic session so our members would bring their board games to a session and everyone would play them and we would give critics about how to improve the game,” junior George Rao said. “But slowly that idea developed into, I was thinking about how everyone likes game shows and Shark Tank is such a good idea. I was watching it that one day and I thought maybe we could make a critic show like Shark Tank and Hawk Tank. Hawk refers to the Liberty Redhawks so I thought we could get the teachers to be the mentors and each student could come present their game and it would be a fun show idea.”

While the people watching the products being pitched on Shark Tank is limited to just the billionaires, Hawk Tank is a live show where all students are welcomed to go and watch.

“We have been preparing for this event as a group for about three weeks during strategy club meetings and after school,” sophomore Mia Choi said. “There have been many different aspects that went into creating our game. We had to first come up with the general idea of the game, solidify the rules, and then develop the best way to present our idea to the judges so that our game fits all the components of the rubric.”

The hard work results in a product to present to the “hawks” which are the judges in this case.

“The invention we are trying to ‘sell’ is a game we created called Squiggle,” Choi said. “It is a creativity based strategy game where players try to turn a random squiggle into a drawing predetermined by another person.”

There will be three group contestants. The “hawks” include Mr. Bunn, Mr. Doty, Ms. Fallon, Ms. Rittenhouse, and Mr. Sabatier.

“I really enjoy games and I’ve seen the club work together building their ideas and putting their games together so I’m really interested in seeing how they pan out and how the games play,” art teacher Pernie Fallon. “I love strategic thinking. I love having something be fun and also not too obvious, but trying to figure things out so I think it will be a really interesting event to do the Hawk Tank. I’m looking forward to seeing the games presented, but also seeing what the other hawks, how they react to the games and what their feelings are about it.”

Choi believes Hawk Tank is just one of the many events that will bring together members of the club.

“Personally, strategy club has been a large part of my extracurricular life during this school year,” Choi said. “We have had many different events and each event was enjoyable and I was glad to participate. This event is no different. I think this event is a great way to be involved in strategy club and I am happy to participate. This event will help strategy club because it is a way for us to publicize our presence within the school and also work together to build teamwork. This event will help my skills as well because I have to work as part of a group, learn to communicate ideas effectively, and come up with a creative game idea.”