At the end of every semester, Hempfield High School teacher Chris Hanusa assigns a special project to the students in his entrepreneurship class. Like many other classes' final assignments, the project requires students to demonstrate what they've learned in the course. But this is no standard written test; Hanusa's students are tasked with creating their own business plan to win over a panel of investors on Hempfield Shark Tank.

Halfway through last semester, teams of Hanusa's students started the project by exploring potential innovations and marketable solutions. Once the teams chose their business plans, they spent the next few weeks getting feedback from friends, relatives, local entrepreneurs and members of the public. If a team did not receive the desired feedback on its product, Hanusa allowed its members to modify their plan and rework the product.

As the last day of the semester approached, students were given one week to polish their prototypes and write the perfect pitch. Hanusa then invited representatives from Market Street Sports Group and Wheatland Federal Credit Union to serve on a panel of investors for students to market their ideas to.

"The goal is for students to experience the process of legitimately starting a business," Hanusa said. "They learn how to go about creating and funding a business with real-world experience, which can be tough to incorporate in education."

Hanusa's students designed several creative products, such as the CozyCap. The CozyCap is a winter hat that is augmented with gel packs, which its user can microwave to provide extra heat. Devnah Triveldi, a member of the CozyCap team, said her group's initial idea was to create a heated mattress topper. "The Shark Tank presentation was a really unique experience for me because I got to feel what a business pitch would be like," added Triveldi.

Another team created STAR Protection, a device that improves the efficiency of any smoke detector by allow it to detect vibrations. Students on the team experimented with 3D printing to fashion a prototype model and implemented a subscription sale method for the product. "I really enjoyed the process of creating a business plan," said Mike DeMeo of the STAR Protection team. "This course was amazing, and it gave great insight into the life of an entrepreneur."