Creating Competition, Teaching AP, and 18 Preps With Brennan Koch of Stoich Decks [Episode 243]

Rebecca Joyner [00:00:01]:
Welcome to week two of our month of guests on the Secondary Science Unified Podcast and I’m so excited to introduce you to today’s guest. He is a wealth of creativity and wisdom. I honestly was just fascinated by his brain and I was scribbling notes the whole time we chatted. I think it’s important to talk to teachers who are different from me so that you all get to hear a variety of perspectives and experiences. And Brennan Koch is exactly that in the best of ways. Brennan is a 25 year science teaching veteran who also owns and operates Stoic Decks. Stoic Decks makes curriculum centric games designed to create a deep thinking and engaged classroom. When he isn’t teaching science, he is coaching the National Science bowl team or the track team.

Rebecca Joyner [00:00:47]:
In this episode, y’, all, we cover so much. We talk about the 18 different preps he has taught in the last 25 years. We talk about specific tips for teaching all levels of chemistry which has been the main focus in his career and so many great AP teaching tips as he currently teaches both AP Biology and AP Chemistry. He shares how he creates a culture of striving in his classroom, how he uses lab finals to assess labs and minimize the amount he has to grade on labs, and one way he maintains boundaries in order to have work life balance. One of my favorite things he shared was this. I could not be present at home if my work was present at home. Lastly, he shares how he uses games in his classroom. I thought his entire perspective on this was just so unique and fascinating.

Rebecca Joyner [00:01:38]:
He admits that his own competitive nature started this, but that and I quote, different conversations happen when something is on the line in regards to his students playing games. Not only that, but I’m so excited he shared with me so that I can share with you the very first ever it’s not Rocket Science and Secondary Science. Simplified Coupon Code for listeners. Never have I ever had a coupon code to share with you all from someone else and he gave me one and I’m so excited for you to have it. I get zero kickback by the way. I’m just tickled to get to share it with you and I’ll share it throughout the episode. He’ll share it and I’ll share it again at the end, but it’s code rocket for 20% off@stoicdecks.com and again I’ll link that in the show notes for you so you don’t miss it. Okay, I’m going to stop gabbing and let you get to my conversation with Brennan Koch of Stoic decks.

Rebecca Joyner [00:02:34]:
This is Secondary Science Simplified, a podcast for secondary science teachers who want to engage their students and simplify their lives. Hi, I’m Rebecca Joyner from It’s Not Rocket Science. As a high school science teacher turned curriculum writer, I am passionate about helping other science teachers, love their jobs, serve their students, and do it all in only 40 hours a week. Are you ready to rock the time you spend in your classroom and actually have a life outside of it? You are in the right place, teacher friend. Let’s get to today’s episode. Hi, Brandon, how are you?

Brennan Koch [00:03:13]:
I’m great, thank you.

Rebecca Joyner [00:03:14]:
I’m so excited to have you on. You’ve been teaching for 25 years, which is just such an accomplishment. So I would just love to start off our conversation just hearing, you know, what has allowed you to last in this career. I feel like there can be a lot of negativity, especially in these post Covid years, around education and teachers being really drained. So what has kept you going?

Brennan Koch [00:03:36]:
Yeah, 25 years. That just makes me sound like an old man. But I’m. I was thinking about that and I decided that the thing that allows me to keep going is connecting to kids. Because I never, I never wanted to be a science teacher. Like, that’s not the way that my path started. I, my, my primary goal was to be a rogue mountain man scientist and live in the woods and study stuff like that. That’s what I wanted.

Brennan Koch [00:04:02]:
And it took a change in my heart towards people that happened in my early 20s that allowed me to be like, man, I, I should probably care about actual people and not just data. And so for the past 25 years, I’ve been pouring into kids and that, you know, they, they don’t get older, just I do. And that I can keep serving these kids that are wobbly and learning and trying to find their way and walking beside them is, is really energizing to me.

Rebecca Joyner [00:04:34]:
I love that. What did you major in in college?

Brennan Koch [00:04:36]:
I was a biology major. I was anticipating being a fisheries biologist. I worked for the fishing game in the Forest Service and worked out in the biggest wilderness area in the lower 48 collecting fish data up until I decided to become a teacher. So, yeah, so I’m a biology first guy. And then when I decided to become a teacher, I anticipate being a. A biology teacher. And God just kind of laughed because in the past 25 years, I’ve taught, I think 22 years of chemistry and about five or six years of biology. So I’m a chemistry teacher now.

Rebecca Joyner [00:05:13]:
That’s so funny how those things, our plans are never quite what we expect them to be, which is so interesting. My, my brother in law works for the National Water Conservatory and he started out like just collecting data water samples all over the US he loved it and now he just manages people who do. So you know, you may have, what you may have ended up around people regardless. So I’m glad you had the opportunity to influence so many young wobbly people. As you said. So that’s in your career. I’m assuming you’ve worked with multiple different admin during that time. And so I’d be curious to hear because one of the conversations I have with a lot of people in my inbox is just the struggles with admin.

Rebecca Joyner [00:05:53]:
Maybe it’s like their admin can’t relate to them because of course it’s very rare that an admin typically has a science teaching background. Maybe their admin are just difficult. All they care about is the data. I don’t know. So I’d just be curious since you do have a lot of experience. I think you said 4 different admin mainly just what that’s looked like and how you’ve maintained relationships with admin, whether they were great or not so great.

Brennan Koch [00:06:16]:
Yeah, I, I’m afraid I’m going to make some enemies here because my admin has been amazing. In 25 years, I’ve had four different principals and two of them were former science teachers.

Rebecca Joyner [00:06:31]:
Wow, that is crazy odds.

Brennan Koch [00:06:33]:
And my current principal was one of those science teachers and so I’ve been working under her for the last 12 years. So half my career has been under someone who understands what I do. So I consider that pretty big blessing for sure. I think one of the, one of the challenges though, especially for us science teachers, is just valuing ourselves correctly because what we do is different than what other teachers do. And we can like unashamedly claim that, like that’s okay, that what we do is it engages more of our time. It takes, it takes more of us to set up labs and tear down labs and clean up and still teach the content that the other teachers are also teaching. And so to value yourself appropriately matters a lot. And to communicate that to the admin like this is what I need to be able to do this thing that not very many of us can do.

Rebecca Joyner [00:07:32]:
Right.

Brennan Koch [00:07:32]:
And so I think valuing yourself, it goes a long ways to having a good perspective with admin. But like I said, I’ve been really spoiled in working with admin that have backed me and, but they have asked me to do hard things. I mean, I, I currently teach five different science classes. You know, I have five different preps. Chemistry, honors chemistry, AP Chemistry, Honors Biology, and AP Biology. And being asked to do hard things is, is their job. I mean, they, they have to get it done. But we need to protect ourselves too.

Brennan Koch [00:08:05]:
I was, before this started, I was foolishly doing a little tally on a, on a paper how many different classes I’ve been asked to teach. And the answer is 18.

Rebecca Joyner [00:08:15]:
And how many did you say yes to?

Brennan Koch [00:08:17]:
No, those are just the ones I’ve said yes to. So I’ve taught 18 different preps in 25 years.

Rebecca Joyner [00:08:23]:
Wow.

Brennan Koch [00:08:24]:
And so my, my admin needs to know that there’s nobody else that can do what I do. And so therefore they need to protect me. They need to give me the margin to, to allow me to do of what I do. And, and that goes for all of us science teachers. Like, we need to be protected so that we can, so that we can do the thing that only we can do.

Rebecca Joyner [00:08:50]:
That’s so true. And so what are some of the ways that they have created margin for you? Or like, what are some. Not necessarily like, you bartered with them, but said like, hey, I need this in order to do this.

Brennan Koch [00:09:01]:
You know, I need. When I first started teaching two different apartments classes, which there are many of us that do that, but it is hard and it’s very time consuming. I was given an extra prep period.

Rebecca Joyner [00:09:13]:
Good.

Brennan Koch [00:09:13]:
And that lasted all of about two years before it got resorbed into.

Rebecca Joyner [00:09:18]:
They’re like, you’re doing a great job. That’s the problem. You do too good. And then they’re like, you’re fine.

Brennan Koch [00:09:24]:
That matters. Also just dealing with things like ordering and budgeting and all of those things for, for me to go to the admin and just say I need help doing this. And then them giving me, you know, their assistant to come in and do the, do the ordering or to, you know, manage these different things. My current admin will also give us prep days. Like if we, if we are just swamped, we can request a sub to come in and cover our class and just so that we can do the things that we need to do. So I’ve, I’ve been in my back chemical prep room while there’s a sub in my front room.

Rebecca Joyner [00:10:07]:
Wow.

Brennan Koch [00:10:07]:
And so that I can, you know, do the things that I need to do.

Rebecca Joyner [00:10:11]:
I love that though. That’s a great way that they can serve you. What is, what has your admin done in terms of like, outside of class? Responsibilities like duties and clubs. And what kind of has that expectation looked like with all that you’re doing with your age?

Brennan Koch [00:10:28]:
So we’re, we’re expected to do two of those right now. That’s like the expectation. And I, I only do one.

Rebecca Joyner [00:10:36]:
Okay.

Brennan Koch [00:10:36]:
So my, so they’ve, they’ve taken one off, one off my plate, which, which definitely, which definitely helps makes a difference for sure. Yeah.

Rebecca Joyner [00:10:45]:
Well, that’s really helpful. I would love to hear. Now, let’s zoom in on those chemistry classes you teach and then we’ll talk about the, the double aps, because that’s insane. What tips do you have for new chemistry teachers especially? I’m just thinking, you know, typically they’re not gonna be thrown into AP chemistry, but they may get to that point. So maybe any tips you have specifically, I think it’s just unique that you’ve taught all the levels. So what advice would you have for those different levels of chemistry?

Brennan Koch [00:11:08]:
I, I mean, I think the first bit of advice is give yourself grace. That, yeah, teaching chemistry is challenging and it’s hard and you feel like you need to know all the answers all the time. And especially when you’re new, you just won’t and be able to stand in front of the kids and say like, I don’t know, I’m going to get back to you though. And so give yourself that, that grace. Which I was not really good at doing because I was not supposed to be a chemistry teacher. And my first year teaching chemistry was a little rocky. And then the next year they asked me to teach ap. So I went from one year of chemistry to teaching AP the next year.

Brennan Koch [00:11:46]:
And that was a really hard growth curve. And I honestly failed those first year AP kids pretty hard. Like, I had 14 kids in AP and one passed. That’s how bad it was, you know, like, it was a disaster. And that could really hamper the way you think about yourself and about your strengths and what you can do. And so I think, number one, just give yourself grace that, like, it’ll get better and you stick around long enough, like I have. And then we have, you know, know, years in a row where it’s 100% pass rate. And that’s a cool thing, but you don’t get there if you carry all of that pressure on your shoulders all the time.

Brennan Koch [00:12:26]:
So yeah, yeah. Another one that I have used is make changes right away. So you, you have a test and every kid has, you know, asked the same question. Why is this wording this way instead of being like, I’ll remember to edit it next year. Just edit it right now. Or a lab that flops, or you, you had an instruction that had too many grams of copper nitrate being put in or whatever, Go in and edit it right now so that you can rest assured when you step into it next year that you don’t have to, like, try to remember. Now, I know there was a problem, but what was it?

Rebecca Joyner [00:13:01]:
Well, and I even remember in my early years, like, getting defensive if multiple kids were asking me a question about the same test question and then instead kind of taking what you said with the grace and being like, you’re, you know what? I’m going to toss this question. I’m going to rewrite it right now for next year. Because obviously I wrote it in a way that was so confusing that so many people keep asking me about it. And I don’t want to then to be all, you know, flustered about this one, how it’s worded, like, just going ahead and saying, okay, it’s okay. Maybe I just didn’t write it well this first time. I’ll fix it right now for next time. I think that’s a great piece of advice.

Brennan Koch [00:13:33]:
Yeah. And I think if you hold, if you hold some of those pieces with kind of open hands, like, I can’t help myself. I rewrite stuff every, every year, you know, like, and even though I’ve been teaching a long time, it’s not like I pull out the old crusty copy from 25 years ago. It’s. It’s new every year. And going back to admid, my admin was talking to me one day. I’m like, well, I’m. I’m rewriting a lab.

Brennan Koch [00:13:57]:
I need to redo it. And she’s like, you really just can’t help yourself, can you? And it’s like, no, I can’t. Because I need to solve the problems for the kids so that they can engage at a higher level. And so because it’s for them and they are different than last year’s kids and they understand differently, then I need to edit and change and be better for them. And so, yeah, I keep making those changes.

Rebecca Joyner [00:14:21]:
I like that.

Brennan Koch [00:14:22]:
I got two more for you that are quick ones. Focus on connecting content when you’re, when it’s, when you’re young, especially if you’re teaching, like, two levels, Chemistry and honors Chemistry, or chemistry and AP Chemistry or, or switch over to Biology. You know, I’ve, I also have taught middle school at the same time as high school, like life Science and Biology. So it’s like, how many connections can you make so that reteaching doesn’t have to happen, you know, so in that first year, you’re creating those connections so that in the second year you can reap the rewards of those connections. Of like, I know that I taught you how to draw Lewis dot structures. I know that I taught you the connections between anabolic and catabolic reactions in biology. I know that it. Right.

Brennan Koch [00:15:07]:
Like, and so you can leverage that, those connections that you’ve made with the kids. Now, truth be told, I teach in a small, relatively small school. You know, we have 500 kids in the, in the high school. And so that’s a different magnitude of connection. You know, we just had graduation and I, I counted that there was only 13 kids in the whole graduating class that I didn’t have a direct contact with, you know, and so I’m teaching everybody, you know, if they, if they take chemistry or AP Chemistry or AP Biology, I taught them. And so having my hands in, making those connections really, really helps.

Rebecca Joyner [00:15:42]:
Well, and that’s the, that’s like the pro and con of like, the con of having to teach all these different preps is that you have to teach all these different breaths. The pro is that like you said, like when my kids walked in from physical science into my biology classroom, I’m like, don’t play me. Like, I know exactly what I taught you. Or from biology to AP Biology for sure. I’m like, don’t act like you don’t know what ATP is like. Or a protein. We’ve been here before.

Brennan Koch [00:16:06]:
Yeah, and, and they, and they know your language, you know, they, they know how you interact in the classroom. And so that, yeah, just really developing those connections is super valuable. And the last one, and this is like me preaching to my young self is keep work at work. Because when I first started, it was like I had a two foot tall pile of papers coming home and living on the couch. And then they migrated back to the classroom and back and forth. And what I found is I could not be present at home if my work was also present at home. It was like I had this divided heart, this divided mind. And so I, I made the decision years and years ago when my kids were little that if I’m at home, then I’m at home.

Brennan Koch [00:16:55]:
That also the, the, the downside of that is, gosh, I need to write an, I need to, you know, write a new test for this class. Well, that means I’m going to get in my car and I’m going to drive to school. And I’m going to turn on my school computer, I’m going to write a test at school. If I had a computer in my office, it would be way easier to just walk into the office and write that. But my family needed me to know that if I’m at home, I’m at home. And if I’m at school, then I’m doing something that matters for school. And so creating that division would have helped my first few years. For balance.

Rebecca Joyner [00:17:28]:
I have to ask then, how did you manage that? Because you said you teach at a small school. I’m sure parents are probably involved. How did you balance the parent dynamics of like them emailing you and them wanting to be in touch with you when you did have start setting those good boundaries, like did you just train the parents? Like, I’m not gonna respond to you this many times or I’m only gonna, you know, look at my inbox this much or how did you navigate that?

Brennan Koch [00:17:54]:
Probably not well. Yeah, that’s hard. I think it’s really hard, especially with, you know, we’re a Microsoft school. So it’s like I can have teams, chats going on with, with my students and then emails to the parents and you know, it can, it can never end. But our school has a 24 hour deadline. So on school days you have 24 hours to respond to parents. And that’s a school expectation. So that’s nice to know that I don’t have to answer this at dinner necessarily.

Brennan Koch [00:18:29]:
And so I think there’s, I think there’s some value in just being like, this is the time that I’m gonna check those, this is the time I’m gonna respond. Now do I do that perfectly? Oh, absolutely not. Because I also care about the kids that are teams chatting me and I, I care about the parents that are having a hard time and like, I want the best for them. And so you just have to set some lines to be able to have longevity.

Rebecca Joyner [00:18:55]:
Yeah, definitely. So let’s talk about AP now, AP Bio and AP Chemistry. How are you approaching those courses? Maybe the same or different? Do you do exam prep the same? What, what does that look like for those two classes?

Brennan Koch [00:19:09]:
Well, what I discovered over all, all these years of teaching them is that teaching AP Chem and AP Bio are not the same thing. AP Chemistry is coaching. I am coaching my kids to develop skills so that they can solve problems at a higher level. So my coaching mindset kicks in there, right? Like it’s do reps and do training and, and it’s a very kind of Athletic sort of, sort of system. Whereas biology is a language based system. Like you need to be able to speak the language of transcription and translation. You need to be able to, to speak this language that has so many high caliber words that we’re not familiar with. And so we, we, I teach them and we practice very differently.

Brennan Koch [00:19:57]:
We practice language in biology and we practice skills in, in chemistry. And so like, because of that, like in AP biology, I have a term that I coined that, it’s called a trigger word. I tell my kids to imagine these poor graders sitting in a, in a room grading the same question on the AP exam over and over and over again and kind of wanting to gouge their own eyeballs out at times with these horrible answers. And you know, like, it’s so frustrating. And our job as AP bio students is to trigger in the mind of the grader, this person knows what they’re talking about. And you do that through language. You do that by using high caliber, precise scientific language. And so because of that, we practice trigger words all the time.

Brennan Koch [00:20:48]:
On their test. They, I will give them two, like, two terms, two high caliber science terms. And their job is they have to define each of them so that I can see that they understand. And then they have to create the biological context for how those two relate. And so by practicing like, I can speak in high caliber language about this term, I can speak in high caliber language about this term. And, and I can put these in biological context where they matter. It just creates a system where their brain is constantly thinking, how can I use my language to communicate that I understand?

Rebecca Joyner [00:21:23]:
So what’s an example of like two terms you would use for that?

Brennan Koch [00:21:26]:
Sure. Like let’s, let’s do electron transport chain and oxidative phosphorylation.

Rebecca Joyner [00:21:32]:
Okay.

Brennan Koch [00:21:32]:
Okay. And so we know that the electron transport chain is the system that create, that harnesses the energy to run oxidative phosphorylation. But those are really heavy words and they have so many layers. It’s like, and so what we practice is, okay, the term is the electron transport chain. They have to use a high caliber science term in defining that. So I would be looking for terms in their definition like chemiosmosis or proton motive force or concentration gradient or electronegativity or like, I don’t know, they, they can go a number of different ways, but they need to be including one of those highly precise, pointed words in defining the electron transport chain. And then we go to oxidative phosphorylation. Well, they sure had better mention ATP synthase in that answer.

Brennan Koch [00:22:27]:
Right. And then they have to create the, the biological context for those two. Like, how do these relate? Well, that the process of the electron transport chain creates the, the proton motive force that allows ATP synthase to perform oxidative phosphorylation. And so now all of a sudden, kids who have practiced and practiced and practiced trigger words are now communicating precisely at a high level in few words, what they mean. And so to encourage the few words on their test, they get little boxes that are about an inch and a half high by the width of the paper. And they have to do both definitions and the biological context inside that box. And so you have to be really efficient with your words.

Rebecca Joyner [00:23:14]:
Efficient, That’s a good word. Yeah.

Brennan Koch [00:23:15]:
And so I like, we’ll play games with that. Like, I’ll, I’ll have a list of six science words, six trigger words for one kid, a six for a list of six for the other one. And they each roll a dice. They don’t even know what word. They’ll each roll a die and get these two words. And they have to define them and connect them together. Like, how do these two words work? And so I have all these, you know, practice systems where they’re rolling dice and getting these new words and thinking, okay, how do I connect phospholipid bilayer to oxidative phosphorylation? Oh, my goodness. Well, there is a connection because, you know, that inner membrane is made of that.

Brennan Koch [00:23:53]:
Right. And so, and so like, fighting for those connections is, is really powerful.

Rebecca Joyner [00:23:58]:
I love that too. Just the way you simplified as much as say, like in biology, we want to, it’s language. And we’re teaching them that we know the language. Like through language, we’re explaining what we know, whereas chemistry is the skills. It’s very interesting. And I like that.

Brennan Koch [00:24:12]:
Yeah, for sure. And so, like, I’m naturally a coach, you know, like, that’s, that’s my heart. And, and I enjoy coaching. And so I love coming alongside AP Chemistry kids and having them do things that are over their head. Try, try problems that they can’t possibly get to the answer yet. And then helping them see, like, how far they can actually get towards the answer, you know, and, and so we do an obscene number of free response questions in, in AP Chemistry. And I lucked out. I mean, I’ve been teaching AP Chem since the early 2000s, and I went to a, the summer institute years and years and years ago, and there was an old guy.

Brennan Koch [00:24:52]:
I say old guy now, I look back and I’m like, now I’m the old guy. There was an, there was a guy like me there, and he’s like, you know, I’ve collected all of these AP pre response questions since 1973 or something. And, and he’s like, do you want them? And I’m like, of course I do. So he gave me like 30 years of AP Chem questions that he had, that he had collected. And so now my kids are doing from like 1970 to 2026 on AP Classroom. And we have so many FRQs that we do so that they’re just, they don’t get rattled because the College Board’s goal, and this isn’t to like, downplay the College Board, the College Board’s goal is to put a question in front of a kid that, that really rattles them. That really makes them nervous. Like, oh my gosh, I don’t know anything about that.

Brennan Koch [00:25:46]:
I’ve, they, they called that thing an acid. I’ve never even seen that formula before in my life. I don’t know what’s going on. And then they’ll turn around and ask a really simple question about it. And so training kids to see hard things and to be able to, you know, to dissect, okay, that, yeah, there’s hard content here, but really, these are the things that I know and I can interpret from this. It gives them confidence then to really get to the harder things that come later in those FRQs. The A, B, C, D, E, F, G. You can do A, B and C all the time.

Rebecca Joyner [00:26:21]:
Yes. That word rattle is so true. I never taught AP Chem, but I taught AP Bio. And I remember telling them, you’re gonna come out of the exam and be like, you never taught me this. But that’s because AP is doing that on purpose. They’re gonna give you data and information that you’ve never heard of, but you don’t need to have had background info on it to apply the skills and stuff and language that you know, to like, solve the problem.

Brennan Koch [00:26:45]:
I hope this doesn’t sound too crude, but I, I, I tell the kids on purpose the goal of ap, particularly in bio, but both for Kim. Also, the goal of that giant block of text is to make you crap your pants. Like, oh my gosh, Mr. Koch never did this. I have no idea what’s going on.

Rebecca Joyner [00:27:03]:
Exactly.

Brennan Koch [00:27:04]:
And so one of the things that I think is a really good habit that I do, it’s called a 10 second story. And so what I do is I train my kids to look at a problem for 10 seconds, one of these FRQs or even some of these big multiple choice. Look at it for 10 seconds and tell yourself the story. Story, including the punchline here. Here is the punchline of this amazing story that they just told me. And you can’t possibly in 10 seconds read all of these abbreviations and giant words that AP Bio is going to throw at you. You can’t do it. But I can find, I can look at the table and I can see the story.

Brennan Koch [00:27:43]:
I can look at this diagram and see like, gosh, that looks like. And then fill in the blank what that looks like. And so I’ll even have the kids do drills where I’ll have them partner, partner up and I will put an A graph or an F R Q table or something like that, something visual on the screen for 10 seconds while one partner has their eyes closed. And so the one partner looks and sees it for 10 seconds. Then I turn off the screen and then they tell the one partner that looked at it, tells the other one, the blindfolded one tells them what the punchline of the story was. And then the second person, the blindfold person has to tell me what was the punchline in the story. And so what we do and it’s shockingly strong correlation. The thing that, that second blindfolded person says is the first question on the, on, on the, on the free response or connected to it.

Brennan Koch [00:28:43]:
And it’s like, see, look in 10 seconds you knew what, where this was going. Even though College Board’s trying to make you freak out, it doesn’t matter. You in that 10 seconds is actually enough to get you into the context, into the mindset so that you can understand. And so doing 10 second drills is really helpful and it helps them to not panic and it helps them to slow down and just be like, I’m going to find a punchline. You know, I’m looking at a, I’m looking at a cladogram. And the punchline is, wow, those two bears are really close on the, on two different clades. Or all right, I’m looking at protein synthesis and protein synthesis went to zero when this happened or whatever. Like that’s the punchline.

Brennan Koch [00:29:21]:
That’s the exciting part of the story. Well, guess what the question’s gonna be about? It’s gonna be about that punchline. I do it in chemistry as well.

Rebecca Joyner [00:29:27]:
That’s excellent advice. Do you have any other tips for AP teachers?

Brennan Koch [00:29:31]:
So it’s, it’s gotten less, but some kids still struggle with the time limit on particularly on, on multiple choice. And so as we’re training through that throughout the school year, I, I teach them. It’s a silly little system. It’s called this, I just call it the smiley face system, where we rank questions, multiple choice questions on how challenging they are. And so the system goes like this. You and I have them at the beginning, through the beginning of the year actually draw this on their test. A smiley face means I know that I know this answer. Like, I read the question, I know that I know it.

Brennan Koch [00:30:07]:
And you spend very little time on questions that you know that you know, you know that you know it, then circle the answer and move on. You don’t double think and you don’t re. Redo it. Nope, I know that. I know. And then the next smiley face is like a flat face. And that’s. I know that I can figure it out.

Brennan Koch [00:30:24]:
I don’t know what it is, but I know that if I spent the time, I could do it. And I’m going to spend the vast majority of my AP multiple choice section on flat face smiley faces. Like where it’s just like, I know I can figure this out. Then we have frowny face, which is I know that I should know, as in Mr. Koch taught me about catabolic and anabolic, and for whatever reason, I can never remember which is which. And so I’m down to a coin flip again. And, you know, whatever the phrase is. And we spend only enough time to recognize the words that we know within that question.

Brennan Koch [00:31:00]:
Because if I know that I should know it, you’re going to be familiar with something in that question. And so we spend less time there. And then the final smiley face is a barfy face where he’s just barfing all over the place. He’s like, I have no stinking idea what is happening. I don’t even know what this is talking about. Mr. Koch is the worst teacher ever. He never, ever taught us this, right? And, and again, we’re not going to spend time on that.

Brennan Koch [00:31:23]:
And so what that does is by having the kids analyze through these silly little smiley faces on the side of their test, they can help pace themselves on where should I be spending my time. So that when they get to that AP Chemistry question that required them to balance an equation and do a limiting reagent calculation during the, the multiple choice section, it’s okay, right? Because we’ve, we’ve already bought enough time through the other. I know that. I knows that I, I can spend the time to figure this out because sometimes kids will start on a question like that. And then they’ll be like, oh my gosh, I’ve already spent so many, so much time, I have to move on. And even though they could have gotten to the right answer, they panicked themselves. Well no, that’s not what we’re going to do.

Rebecca Joyner [00:32:05]:
So you’re training them to say, okay, read it, answer the ones that are an immediate smiley mark the others and then circle back to those in order with like flat frown barf.

Brennan Koch [00:32:14]:
Yeah, and I, I’m not a circle back. I don’t train them to circle back.

Rebecca Joyner [00:32:20]:
Okay.

Brennan Koch [00:32:20]:
Mostly just because that’s more time again trying to remember where you were going. But if you recognize right off the bat, I know that I can figure this out, then you can just chill out and breathe and get to work and do the thing and that’s okay. But I do have kids that circle back, of course, and that’s fine that you know, I let them do their own. But they’re not going to circle back to barfy face questions and sit there and stare and wonder and question and scratch their head and try to think of things that they’ve never thought of before. Because if they know that they have no idea what it is, then don’t waste your time.

Rebecca Joyner [00:32:55]:
Right.

Brennan Koch [00:32:56]:
Because you don’t have to get 100% on the AP test to get a 5.

Rebecca Joyner [00:32:59]:
Right? So true.

Brennan Koch [00:33:01]:
And so that’s okay. The last AP like kind of tip I have for teachers is to use lab exams. I’ve switched over over the years. When I first started teaching AP chemistry they had to do very robust, thorough write ups for every lab. Like it had the, the abstract and the methods and the results and the discussion and citing sources and, and they would turn in rough drafts to me and then I’d give them back and we’d improve our language and like. But it was so much effort. And now I, this, this is going to sound horrible. I don’t grade AP labs that the only thing that they do is they create their own digital, their own digital lab book.

Brennan Koch [00:33:50]:
And then at the end of the semester they take a lab final and what I do is I, I give them like we have a 90 minute period, you have three lab adjacent questions. So it’s not just redo the same lab that you did. It’s like here’s something that’s similar. Let me give you an example for AP bio. Like one of the first AP Bio labs is like an osmosis one where you’re figuring out, you know, how these cells are gaining or losing weight or whatever. And then on the, on the lab final, they had to figure out what percent dissolved solid are orbeez. You know, those little squishy bullets that shoot out of the gun. And it’s like, well, we didn’t ever do orbeez, but I’ve done something like that.

Brennan Koch [00:34:35]:
And, and the only thing that they can use on their lab exam is, is their digital lab notebook. And everybody does it individually. So every kid has to maintain their own digital lab notebook because they don’t know which lab I’m going to be testing them on. And that becomes a very large portion of their grade. At our school, we’re an 80, 20 school. So 80% is summative. And this is one of the biggest summative tests of the year. So you’re flirting with a large percent of your grade relying on how well did I record what I did and how well did I understand what I did so that I can replicate it.

Brennan Koch [00:35:16]:
And so it’s super valuable to save yourself some time because when you’re, when you’re prepping five different science classes like I am currently, I don’t have time to go through with a fine tooth comb and grade five, five different labs for all these different levels. I just don’t. And so at the AP level, they know they’re, they’re having a lab final. Now I do give them points. I’m, I’m a, like I said before, I’m a coach. I’m a competitive person. We compete for points at the AP level. And I know this, not everybody agrees with this philosophy, but it, you know, if we’re doing a percent yield in chemistry, right? Like the, the correct percent yield is a hundred percent yield.

Brennan Koch [00:35:57]:
And so the, the group that gets the highest percent yield will get the highest grade on the lab, and the group that gets the lowest percent yield will get the lowest grade on the lab. And so I, in their, in their formative work, right, like on the 20% side at our school are these lab grades that are based on performance only. Like, did, did you win? You know, and so, and so it increases the level of concern in the classroom. They know that they have to record everything in their digital notebook because this could be on their final. And they know that they have to beat the team next to them. So we’re going to rinse extra with the ionized water and we’re going to pay attention. We’re going to remember to weigh the filter paper when it’s dry and not, you know, not guess after we’ve weighed it. And it’s wet.

Brennan Koch [00:36:43]:
Right. We’re going to, we’re going to increase our concern about those things because if I do the best, I get the best score.

Rebecca Joyner [00:36:50]:
Right. The precision matters.

Brennan Koch [00:36:52]:
Totally.

Rebecca Joyner [00:36:52]:
What does that look like at the, like more on grade level or honors level? Like what, how do you grade labs? Or just handle labs at those levels?

Brennan Koch [00:36:59]:
Yeah. So my, my grade level labs are, you know, they’ll have usually like a worksheet, you know, like a, there’s something they’re filling out as they’re doing it. It’ll have three or four follow up questions on it and one of those questions will be on their test or one like it or the calculation. So let’s say we’re doing a, a specific heat. Right? Specific heat of an unknown metal lab in grade level science. Well, they know that on their test I’m going to describe a lab in which they have to figure out what metal it is. And so that again relieves my need to grade every single part of every single lab because it will, the, the understanding will come out on the test. Now they do, they do have to complete all their tables, they do have to show all their work.

Brennan Koch [00:37:49]:
They do have to answer the four or five follow up questions that each lab include to make sure that their understanding can communicate what they did. But again, I’m not going to stress on going through each lab group’s calculation of oh, did they actually do the calculation. Right. Because I’ll find out on the 80% side of their grade when they take their test.

Rebecca Joyner [00:38:12]:
Right.

Brennan Koch [00:38:13]:
If they know it. And that also relieves that feeling of oh my goodness, a kid was gone, he missed a lab. And so am I supposed to set up a late lab? Do they have to come after school to redo that? Nope, because the scoring of that actual lab is very minimal. But the skills are required on the test. And so that means you better come with me and I’ll explain how the lab works or you better get with your normal lab partner and have them explain how it goes so that you can do the math because you’re going to be held responsible for that.

Rebecca Joyner [00:38:47]:
That’s great. Well, you’ve mentioned a couple different things that you do in your classroom that are like gamified or. And you talked about the competitive nature and the point. So we’ve got to talk about games because that is definitely a part of your classroom culture. So I’d love to hear more about games and how you use them and how you would combat the argument that games are a waste of time, that some people would say, because you obviously know that time is of the essence of the different classes that you teach.

Brennan Koch [00:39:13]:
100%. You know, I, I love games. I, I’ve, I’ve always been a competitive person and, and I, I love board games and sports and all the things I, I, I thrive in that, in that world. And so from early, early on in my chemistry teaching, I was creating games to play in the classroom, you know, and, and it was like, oftentimes early on it was like, okay, kids, we’re gonna make cards and I have little scraps of paper and okay, you guys make atom cards, you’re going to write down elements, and you over here make proton, neutron, electron cards and you’re just going to write on these scraps of paper and then we’re going to play a matching game or, you know, whatever it is. But what I noticed early on in doing, in doing just simple little scraps of paper type games like that is the conversations that kids have get deeper, faster. Because if I’m making the element card and I make the, the, the carbon element card, and you’re supposed to make the proton, neutron, electron card and you write eight protons on that, then all of a sudden we have a conversation of like, no, no, no, that’s not the right number. Like, look, you have to choose this number. This is the atomic number, that’s the number of protons.

Brennan Koch [00:40:27]:
And, and that’s not me doing that, that’s the kids doing that. So I started to see that, like, wow, they have different conversations when something’s on the line. Now we’re playing the game and we’re trying to win and somebody’s trying to sneak, you know, trying to play a card that’s not playable, and they’re arguing over whatever it is. Those are really valid and valuable conversations about the content. And so in like 2019, I decided finally, I’m like, you know what, I should just formalize this and actually turn one of, one of my, one of my scraps of paper games into it into, into a real game. And so I started Stoic Decks and I did a Kickstarter on for my first, for my first game and got a few people to back it and got scraped together enough money to make it. And I’m like, this is going to be so awesome. I’m going to make a game that’s for use in classrooms and kids will be playing my game and, and I sent it to the factory to be made and that’s called spring of 2020.

Brennan Koch [00:41:30]:
And so then the whole world shuts Down. And it’s like, oh, no, now nobody’s even in a classroom. This is pointless. And it was so hard. And so it took a while then to come out of that whole era and get back to the classroom and see that, wow, kids really do engage with these games at a different level. This is not a worksheet where they’re asking, what answer did you get? Because I can ask, what answer did you get? And you say, three times 10 to the 23rd atoms. And I write on my paper, three times 10 to the 23nd atoms. And I didn’t engage my brain at all.

Rebecca Joyner [00:42:04]:
Right.

Brennan Koch [00:42:04]:
But if we’re playing. If we’re playing a card game and we’re trying to figure out who has the most atoms, and you’re. You’re only going to win if you play a card with the most atoms and you’re playing, you know, 12 grams of carbon, and I’m playing 12 grams of helium. Well, did we. Do we have the same. And, you know, like, is that the same? Well, no, it’s not the same number of atoms. And then the kids have this conversation, no, because helium has less mass. That’s more atoms.

Brennan Koch [00:42:33]:
You know, that’s three moles of atoms. So I fell in love with watching kids have those intentional, controlled conversations about the content that, that I was teaching, and I just kept going. And I just, a couple of weeks ago, launched my fifth game that’s designed specifically to be in chemistry classrooms so that kids have opportunities to have these conversations and to have competition. And so there are days in my, in my class where the only lesson plan is, we are playing this game, and you’re going to break up into your tables and you’re going to get six kids around a table, and you’re playing this card game and you’re having these conversations and those conversations. And that learning is more than I could get out of a lecture, plus a worksheet.

Rebecca Joyner [00:43:24]:
That’s awesome.

Brennan Koch [00:43:25]:
And so I, Yeah, I just keep. I just keep going now and. And it’s. It’s super valuable.

Rebecca Joyner [00:43:30]:
I love it. I just feel like you have so much creativity to create these games. And I’m going to link them in the show notes for everyone listening. But also just, I think your whole website, you have a great blog that I feel like you write some excellent content on, so everyone needs to check it out for more support. How many games do you have up here that you need to execute?

Brennan Koch [00:43:49]:
I. In my head is a lot. I’m. I am an idea guy, and it drives my wife crazy because literally I just cleaned off the kitchen table because there’s prototypes all over the kitchen table. Cause it’s like, ooh, it’s summer now I can just think about creating more games. And, and so I had to clear off the table so that, you know, we could eat. But I’m an idea guy and so it doesn’t, it doesn’t really.

Rebecca Joyner [00:44:18]:
The limit does not exist.

Brennan Koch [00:44:20]:
No, because I just want to solve problems. Right, right. Like, I want to make it so that teachers who are struggling with hard things have a way to engage kids in a way that is deeper and more fun and, and more light and less teacher centric. Because now the kids are having these conversations around their board games, you know, around their card games, rather than me having to kind of browbeat them. So. Yeah, so the games, they’re, they’re still going. Yeah. On my website you mentioned there is a lot of stuff on there.

Brennan Koch [00:44:53]:
I have tried to be disciplined during the school year and I write a new blog every Friday. I think I have close to 150 articles on there that you can search that are. It’s mostly chemistry because my, my games are chemistry oriented, but just chemistry or teaching related. And then I have a bunch of resources just that are just like free on there for, you know, reference sheets and labs and whatever. Whatever I think of I put on there, so.

Rebecca Joyner [00:45:21]:
Well, what I’m hearing is that you were really meant to be a chemistry teacher since you love to solve problems and all chemistry is, is problem solving. So.

Brennan Koch [00:45:29]:
Yeah, it’s. I think it’s. I think that’s true.

Rebecca Joyner [00:45:33]:
Okay, but before I let you go, I just have a few like rapid fire questions to wrap it up because I just like to ask everyone just to hear lots of different opinions on this. So first, do you have like one classroom management technique or hack you’d like to share?

Brennan Koch [00:45:46]:
Yeah, I think it. This isn’t a hack. This is. There is no magic bullet.

Rebecca Joyner [00:45:50]:
People just love that word. You’re so right. People want a hack. And there’s not always a hack.

Brennan Koch [00:45:55]:
There. There isn’t. There isn’t because every classroom is made of 30 humans that have 30 individual problems. And so my hack quote unquote, for, for classroom management is to create a culture of striving. And I use that phrasing in my class. The, the culture of this classroom is striving. It’s not perfection, but it’s, it’s moving forward. And so if you, if your whole mindset is chemistry, AP biology.

Brennan Koch [00:46:25]:
These science classes are hard, but our attitude towards them is always going to be putting one foot in front of the other, and we’re going to work hard. And I, as your teacher, am going to work so hard to make it work for you. If they feel that connection, then they know, okay, I’m. I’m in this room. It’s really hard. And I have this decision to make because my own sinful heart wants to be, you know, off topic and doing wrong things, right? Like, that’s. That’s where. That’s where I.

Brennan Koch [00:46:55]:
I naturally go. But if the culture of the room is striving, then those people who move off center, away from where they should be culturally feel ostracized rather than being given attention. They’re. They’re looked at like, man, what are you doing? That’s not. That’s not what this team does here. And so that comes at a cost to me because I tell kids, I will do whatever it takes to help you succeed. And that means in 25 years, I can count on, like, my hands how many times I’ve eaten in the. In the teacher’s lounge.

Brennan Koch [00:47:34]:
I. I don’t. I eat lunch in my room every single day. I’m in my room early every single day, and my door is open to kids every single day. And so it’s not unusual for me to have, I mean, from 2 to 20 kids in my room, in my room at lunch, because the culture is striving. And so if. If you develop that culture of striving early, it takes care of so many, like, behavior problems. Just one story.

Brennan Koch [00:48:10]:
My. I’ve. I’ve taught both of my sons in honors chemistry and AP chemistry. And my older son, in his class, there was a kid who was a turkey, right? He was always getting in trouble. He was. He was getting kicked out of classes. And, you know, he. He was a troublemaker, but he wasn’t in the same period as my son.

Brennan Koch [00:48:30]:
And so my son is watching him in Spanish class just get kicked out every day. And just this fight. And my son comes to me. He’s like, dad, you know, what does this kid do in. In your class? I’m like, he’s great. He’s like, no, no, no. Like. Like, what naughty things does he do? I’m like, he doesn’t.

Brennan Koch [00:48:49]:
Because the cult. Because the culture is striving. And if he did, then it would. He would feel so out of place because that’s not the culture of this room. And so he does great. And. And that was, like, eye opening to my son. Like, oh, there’s a different culture in that.

Brennan Koch [00:49:07]:
In this Classroom versus that classroom. And I think if you hold that, those culture building activities, if you hold those tightly then man, so many of those problems just take care of fall into place.

Rebecca Joyner [00:49:21]:
It’s so true. Okay, well this is culture adjacent. How do you handle cell phones? How do you handle AI? Is that a problem in your classroom?

Brennan Koch [00:49:29]:
Cell phones aren’t a big problem. Our school is. The school rule is they can’t be seen at school. And so if I see one, I take it and I turn it into the office and they pay their fine and you know, whatever, like it’s, it’s there, it’s already in place. So that’s not a huge deal to me. And AI is, is tricky in that if I just put all my points on homework and then they can go home and, and take a photo and put it into the chat and get the answers, then their grade is not accurately measuring what, what they know and are able to do. So my homework is worth minimal points. They have to do it in order to, we’re also, our school is also a retake school.

Brennan Koch [00:50:16]:
So on test we offer retakes. But if you don’t have all of your homework and your practice test completed then you don’t get the opportunity to retake. So that, that helps hold that standard high. And then I do live in class quizzes that are all pop quizzes and I don’t, I, I literally write all my quizzes on the board. I don’t have a piece of paper that can be texted around. And so every quiz is different in between each period. So when, when kids walk into the class there’s usually three warm up questions on the board. I do a past, a present and a future question.

Brennan Koch [00:50:49]:
So to help them get their momentum for the day, like what it we learned yesterday is my past. What are we covering today is my today. And then can you guess about how to solve this future problem? And so we work through that every day. And then some days I’m like, okay, take out a blank piece of paper. We’re going to take a quiz that looks just like those questions and I rewrite those questions on the board and they, and they take it. So there’s no AI interface that lets them cheat this random question that I haven’t made until the moment that my hand hits the whiteboard.

Rebecca Joyner [00:51:20]:
You know, that’s awesome.

Brennan Koch [00:51:21]:
And I don’t do, yeah, I don’t do a lot of take home work.

Rebecca Joyner [00:51:25]:
Right.

Brennan Koch [00:51:26]:
So AI hasn’t been a, hasn’t been a big issue for me. Negatively for sure.

Rebecca Joyner [00:51:31]:
So that’s awesome.

Brennan Koch [00:51:32]:
Yeah.

Rebecca Joyner [00:51:32]:
Well, the last question I have to ask you is the one I end every episode with. And it is what is one way that you’re simplifying your life right now?

Brennan Koch [00:51:39]:
Yeah, I was trying to figure out how to phrase this. Live by the tyranny of the alarm clock. I do a lot of things. I’m a busy person. I’m teaching five different preps and I design games and I run my game company and I also am an author and I write. And so my alarm clock goes off at 4:40am and from 4:40 until I go to school, it’s quiet in the house. And so I’ve just created this discipline that allows me to get up and I on Mondays I write a substack article. On Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday I write a book.

Brennan Koch [00:52:20]:
On Friday I write a blog for Stoic Decks. And then I can fill in those some of those times with fulfilling orders and managing my games and all that stuff, managing with the factory and all those kinds of fun things. But if you live by the tyranny of the alarm clock, it simplifies because I know that from 4:40am till 7:00am or whenever, you know, I have to go to, to school, that time is created and set aside to accomplish these goals. And it’s so easy to hit snooze and it’s so easy to be like, oh, I worked hard today, I’m not getting up tomorrow. But one of our admin challenged us to create healthy habits. And so three years ago I said, I’m going to live by the tyranny of the alarm clock. And that simplified my life of being able to know, like this is how, how and when I’m going to apply this. And gosh, you get a lot more done when you live by that tyranny.

Rebecca Joyner [00:53:18]:
Well, and you’re obviously a morning person. When do you go to bed?

Brennan Koch [00:53:21]:
Well, when would I like to go to bed? Is that what you said?

Rebecca Joyner [00:53:24]:
What’s your goal?

Brennan Koch [00:53:26]:
You know, I, my, my wife is a night owl and I’m a morning person. But you know, I, I also have to give my energy to her. And so we, yeah, know, or taking our walks with the dog and doing all the family things and you know, I’m trying to get bet in bed by 10, but we’ll see if that actually works.

Rebecca Joyner [00:53:46]:
Wow.

Brennan Koch [00:53:47]:
And then we just get up and do it again. But live by the tyranny of the alarm clock. It’s helpful.

Rebecca Joyner [00:53:54]:
I, I use alarms or timers all the time just when I start a project, like I’LL decide. This should not. I should not spend more than 20 minutes writing this quiz. So I’m just gonna set a timer and when this goes off, like I’m gonna wrap it up or else I can just keep the creative part of me just wants to keep going and going, going. So I don’t know if I could do 4:40, though. That’s pretty disciplined. I’m impressed. Well, Brandon, thank you so much for coming on podcast.

Rebecca Joyner [00:54:19]:
I just, I learned so much. I was like, I kept, I kept looking down. Cause I was scribbling things that you said down that I don’t want to forget. So I really appreciate you sharing your time and wisdom with listeners. Would the best way for people to find you be justoikdex.com or is there another way to reach out to you?

Brennan Koch [00:54:35]:
Yeah, that’s the, that’s the best. That’s where I’m the most active. I don’t do much on social media and stuff. There’s not a lot of time left in the day for that.

Rebecca Joyner [00:54:43]:
So then you’d have to get up at 3:40.

Brennan Koch [00:54:45]:
So we can’t do that. That doesn’t work. Yeah. Strikedex.com and there’s like a free download game there, like a print and play game. And then that puts you on my email list so that we can stay in touch. And. And then I have an email, stoicdexmail.com that you can reach out. And so I did put together like a coupon code for listeners of secondary science simplified.

Brennan Koch [00:55:12]:
And so if they go to stoicdex.com and use code Rocket, then they can get 20% off any of those games. And we have games over counting atoms and moles and periodic trends and creating ionic bonds and metric units. And yeah, it’s. It’s all there. And they can go and check it out@strikedex.com this is so exciting. Code Rocket. Yeah, it’s great.

Rebecca Joyner [00:55:38]:
This is the first time I’ve ever had a special coupon code for anything. So I feel so excited.

Brennan Koch [00:55:43]:
And I went with Rocket, you know, so that it’s all on theme.

Rebecca Joyner [00:55:46]:
So I love it. Well, thank you so much. That was super generous and I hope, I hope we get to connect again in the future. This is great.

Brennan Koch [00:55:52]:
Yeah, I appreciate it.

Rebecca Joyner [00:55:54]:
Thank you so much for listening to today’s episode and my conversation with Brennan. You can find all the links mentioned in the show notes@ isn’t rockscienceclassroom.com Episode 243 if you are listening and you are now excited to utilize games, or maybe just to approach how you teach AP differently this school year. Please leave a rating in a review for the podcast. I’d love to hear from you. And don’t forget the first ever exclusive It’s Not Rocket Science and Secondary Science Unified Coupon Code is here for you. You can use Code Rocket at checkout@stoicdecks.com for 20% off. All right, Teacher friends, that wraps up today’s episode. If you’re looking for an easy way to start simplifying your life as a secondary science teacher, head to It’s Not Right rocketscienceclassroom.

Rebecca Joyner [00:56:46]:
Com Challenge to grab your Classroom Reset Challenge. And guess what? It’s totally free. Thanks so much for tuning in and I’ll see you here next week. Until then, I’ll be rooting for you, teacher Friend.