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An Orange teacher’s effort to teach about the environment is still impacting the community

Five decades ago, El Modena High chemistry teacher Jeanne Carter started a class about a topic sweeping the 70s: the environment.

Her students quickly caught the bug.

“The kids said, ‘We should do more than just talk about it,’” Carter recalled.

There was this plot of land on campus — all grass, no trees — right next to the baseball field. And so Carter did something more.

Over half a century, that once plain 1-acre plot turned into a bucolic nature center, featuring a pond, a 200-foot stream, wandering paths and tiny bridges that crisscross gardens with mature trees and blooming flowers. It’s believed to be the only nature center of its kind on a school campus in Orange County.

And what’s further unique about it, as Carter emphasizes, is that El Modena’s high school students have led tens of thousands of elementary school children on teaching tours through the gardens over the decades.

“What they love is they’re taught by a high school student,” Carter said. “That’s very unique. It’s the only nature center in Orange County that uses high school kids to teach little ones.”

This Friday, April 21, the Orange Unified School District will honor the 82-year-old retired teacher with a dedication ceremony to officially rename the nature center after her.

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Walking through the gardens over the weekend, Carter shied away from the anticipated attention but acknowledged her role in what one former student called “a little urban paradise.”

“I’m really proud of this legacy because it’s teaching about nature,” said Carter. Then quickly, as she did repeatedly throughout a two-hour visit, she maintained the nature center wouldn’t have happened without the help of students, volunteers and community organizations who contributed through the years.

“All the hardscaping — the seating areas, the dock by the pond, the fencing — that’s like 40 years of projects done by the community,” she said, rattling off names of numerous groups, including local Kiwanis and Rotary clubs as well as crediting Eagle Scout and Boy Scout troops who did much of the construction.

Orange resident Arlene Turner, one of Carter’s students in the early 70s and a frequent volunteer at the nature center, said she’s grateful to see Carter honored.

“When I heard they were honoring her, I thought, ‘Thank God.’ This literally happened because of Jeanne’s vision,” Turner said.

“I was one of her students in her environmental science class, and she was super passionate about the environment,” Turner said, taking a short break from pulling weeds at the nature center. “She was one of the pioneers.”

“We are recyclers, composters, reuse everything at least twice … ever since,” Turner said of herself and her sister, who was also in Carter’s class. “It was life-changing. She was so instrumental in influencing us about the environment and its impact. I don’t even know that she knows that.”

In February, the OUSD board voted to rename the site the Jeanne Carter Nature Center. A new interpretive center building, which serves as a mini museum and houses collections of rocks and crystals, shells and native artifacts, sits just outside the front gates. It was finished earlier this year and already displays Carter’s name on the outside.

Carter began teaching chemistry at El Modena High in 1966, the first year the campus opened. She launched environment-oriented classes with another teacher on campus. And then she got to work on creating the nature center, which included securing a state grant that was partly used to dig a pond on the property.

The nature center features more than 100 native plants and tall oak, sycamore and even redwood trees — all planted by students, Scouts or community volunteers. Painted signs throughout inform students about water conservation and ecological principles. There are also a couple of teaching areas, with wooden seating benches and platforms that have showcased the school’s theater and musical groups.

Addison Sullivan, 15, got to visit the center both as a kindergarten student at McPherson Magnet School and again as a freshman at El Modena where she saw school performances in the outdoor gardens.

She still remembers the walking field trip from her kindergarten days: “I thought it was really cool to see all the plants and all the animals living here.”

The nature center, which attracts wild ducks, hawks and numerous birds, butterflies and other critters, is not typically open to the general public. But elementary school teachers can arrange to bring students on field trips. Once there, the younger kids are teamed up with high school students, usually one or two little kids to one older student. The elementary student is handed a clipboard, some worksheets and led through the indoor interpretative center and the outdoor gardens.

“It’s been a wonderful resource for the students and the district,” said science teacher Shaun Karpow, who is now helping bring tours back to the nature center after a lull during the pandemic.

Karpow also takes his own high school students to the nature center where they learn how to collect data, test the water for microorganisms or just get a break from school.

“It’s the best,” Karpow said. “Nothing beats teaching them in person in the field.”

Carter, who first retired in 2002 but then returned to the classroom for a couple of years, continued to head the program until recently and is still volunteering at the nature center she created in 1972.

“This place has probably helped keep me going,” Carter said, stopping to chat with a couple of 5-year-olds exploring the trails.

Her role today, she said, is to “answer questions and make sure it continues.”

Looking back over half a century, what does she make of it all?

“I am amazed at what can be done with tenacity,” Carter says.


Source: Orange County Register

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