Like a lot of teachers in early 2020, Brandon Hendrickson found himself suddenly teaching entirely online. Unlike a lot of teachers, he loved it.
Hendrickson and his wife, Kristin, were co-teaching in a classroom in a small private elementary school in Bellevue, Wash., where they had designed the curriculum. That gave them a ton of flexibility when it came to creating an online-only option, and their students were having a blast.
When spring break rolled around, on a whim, Hendrickson put a post on Facebook offering to teach the same science class he’d been doing at school to anyone who wanted to try it. He was hoping to have 10 people sign up. Nearly 30 did, and Science is Weird was born.
Today, Science is Weird offers online classes designed to ignite the curiosity of students ages eight to 12 while teaching the fundamental principles of science. The classes are designed for students who think differently, including those with ADHD, those designated as academically gifted and those considered twice-exceptional, meaning they have both exceptional ability and also face some learning or developmental challenges.
Why Rochester?
In the summer of 2020, the Hendricksons decided to move their family and new business out of the Seattle area. They had been wanting to homeschool their two children but couldn’t make it work financially on a single educator’s salary, so they started thinking about moving to the Midwest. Hendrickson grew up in Milwaukee, and Kristin grew up in Fargo, so they started looking for somewhere within an easy drive of their families.
Hendrickson shared the process in an episode of the Urban Evolution podcast, produced by Destination Medical Center (DMC) Economic Development Agency, the public-private partnership behind a 20-year, $5.6 billion initiative to build on Mayo Clinic as an economic engine for the city of Rochester.
“We decided to do this scientifically,” he said. “We decided to sort of probe out, ‘What are the great cities between Milwaukee and Fargo that would allow us to both swing by and see our parents and have our parents come and visit us?’ We did our research. We looked at census data; we looked at the crime rates; we looked at cultural touchstones. We looked at everything.”
They selected a handful of cities and set out on a summer road trip.
“We can live a much more chill life by being here [Rochester] than we ever were able to do in Seattle,” he said.
Rochester, Minnesota’s third-largest city, appears frequently on rankings of the country’s most livable cities. Now, the city is looking to build on that appeal by positioning itself as a great home for the post-pandemic workforce as many employees feel more freedom to choose their home untethered from their work locations.
“Rochester could become a city of choice for people who can work anywhere,” said Patrick Seeb, executive director of the Destination Medical Center Economic Development Agency, “especially considering we’re the front door of the number one hospital in the world.”
DMC is focused on transforming the experience of being in Rochester. “This is all about creating the best experience, so that people will choose to come to Rochester to live here, to work here, to receive treatment here,” Seeb said.
Startup life
The move also has been good for business.
In the first year, Science is Weird served approximately 100 families. The business is beginning to pick up students internationally, including families in Australia, Belgium, Canada, England, Ireland and Singapore.
Hendrickson said Science is Weird has benefited from connecting to Collider, a resource for early-stage entrepreneurs in Rochester, as well as from more casual mentorship from other entrepreneurs and subject matter experts in the community.
“I am as plugged into Rochester after a year of being here than I was in Seattle after a decade of living there,” he said. “It’s like a 10X speed run.”
Rochester has a solid ecosystem to support entrepreneurs, including meetups and other networking events and access to co-working spaces, business incubators and accelerator programs. The city is ranked as one of the top five small cities for business by ChamberofCommerce.org. Yet, it's the people that Hendrickson said make the community stand out.
“The thing that Rochester specifically out-competes most other places with is we have a really high proportion of very cool people,” he said. “Almost everyone I meet through the local entrepreneur community, or local schools or even walking around the block or in coffee shops, they're really fun.”
For now, Science is Weird is focused on organic growth. All of the marketing is word-of-mouth, and Hendrickson manages the operations with just a handful of contractors.
“I like keeping things small and simple,” he said, while acknowledging the online learning format offers plenty of room to scale. “I would like there to be no limit to the number of kids I work with. I love helping them build the backbone of all the sciences that they will then get to use for their whole lives.”
With Mayo Clinic at its heart, DMC is the largest public-private economic initiative in Minnesota and a catalyst for growth in Rochester. DMC is designed to position Minnesota as a global center for the highest quality medical care and to generate high-value jobs, new tax revenue and businesses. Learn more.