East Vancouver rain gardens show students that science takes patience and time

With the support of our partner BC Hydro, Science World spotlights teachers leading their communities with clean energy mindsets and power smart practices for a brighter future.

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Jonathan Hultquist, a science teacher at Tupper Secondary School in East Vancouver, says holding class outdoors provides new opportunities for problem-solving, a skill that’s critical in both science and life.

“We want to see a shift in the way students learn. Being in the rain and getting muddy can be part of it; the other part is giving yourself time and developing patience.”

His science students spend some of their class time in the natural elements investigating the rain gardens outside of their school.

Planted by the City of Vancouver as part of the green city strategy, the rain gardens are nature-based solutions to reducing pollution in waterways.

“We look at these plants,” Jonathan says, “and we talk about how we’re connected to them. Every other breath we take comes from plants. They are our teachers and they’ve been on Earth longer than us.”

Jonathan traces his connection to learning in nature back to his years spent in Hawaii where his father lived.

As a young child, Jonathan was afraid of sharks, but as a teen he found himself in the presence of one during an afternoon snorkeling.

"I was surprised, because she wasn’t scary,” he says. “She was beautiful! I was mesmerized by the way she glided through the water. She seemed to move effortlessly. The experience changed my perception. Sharks weren’t scary anymore. They were another living being and they were amazing."

Time flies

Outside among the rain gardens, there are no worksheets or tests. Nature itself provides ample opportunities for learning and growth.

“For example,” Jonathan says, “when the students lay down a quadrat—which is an empty wooden frame used to count the abundance of living creatures—the students are supposed to look for little animals. What scientists call macroinvertebrates, we call worms and bugs. And for a while, when the students first lay down the quadrat, they don't see anything.”

In a different setting, the initial absence of bugs might lead one to conclude that the bugs do not exist. But in nature, there’s usually more to the story than meets the eye.

“So, they sit and they wait for the creatures to emerge. Or they move a bit of leaf litter out of the way. Or they adjust their perspective. For many of them, it’s an entirely new way of doing science.”

Jonathan references the First Peoples Principles of Learning put forth by Indigenous Elders, scholars and knowledge keepers to guide BC’s curriculum.

“One of these principles states that learning involves patience and time. Any opportunity we get to practice this with our students, we should do it.”

A herd of turtles

Time spent in the ocean while living in Hawaii supported Jonathan’s own love for both the environment and scientific observation.

When he graduated high school, he moved to Hawaii and worked as a wildlife guide, leading snorkeling tours that brought participants near a community of sea turtles.

He’d ask people to keep their distance and, when the turtles surfaced to breathe, he’d speak gently to them. “Over time,” he says, “one of the turtles seemed to recognize me as non-threatening and came closer and closer each day.”

He recognized this returning turtle from the distinctive markings on her back. After several weeks, she began to surface directly beside him and bump softly against him and his surfboard—a flotation device for snorkelers needing a rest. “When she lifted her head out of the water to breathe, I’d say, ‘Hello.’”

For several years, Jonathan ended his snorkeling tours with the sea turtles so he could visit these fascinating creatures.

The relationship of trust they built, which took patience and time, solidified his love for the ocean and led him to spend the next twenty years in ocean conservation before becoming a teacher.

Today, he gets educational inspiration from many resources, including BC Hydro’s Power Smart for Schools program, and adapts them into lessons for his science classes.

As a teacher, his goal is to build more meaningful relationships with youth and provide them with opportunities to make their own connections with nature. His hope is that students will develop strong connections with nature so they will want value and help care for all living things.  He understands that we need to show the next generation how to care for the Earth, so we can have a long and healthy future on our planet.

“While it’s exciting to think about a colony of humans on the moon or Mars,” he says, “I don’t want that to be our only viable future.”

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Across BC, teachers like Jonathan make schools and communities more sustainable. 

Visit Power Smart for Schools, BC Hydro’s free, curriculum-friendly resources that bring clean energy and conservation to life in the classroom.