Published May 30, 2026
BY ZANA BALABAN
While most Carmel High School staff members will return to campus July 31, one will remain 4,000 miles from home, exploring the depths of the Peruvian Amazon rainforests.
The Explorers Club recently selected Jason Maas-Baldwin, CHS’ very own AP Chemistry and Environmental Science instructor, as a teaching fellow for their 2026 expedition to the Boiling River of the Amazon. In the world of conservation, Maas-Baldwin calls this new focus on education the “last chess move” to bring the field back into the classroom.
“Curiosity is lost when we forget about the spirit of exploration,” Maas-Baldwin says. “This will more directly connect students with some of these really special places on Earth, and ultimately get them excited about nature.”
Jason Maas-Baldwin spends lots of time out in the field, a tendency at the heart of how he landed the fellowship and how he intends to leverage the student experience for a greater respect and understanding of the natural world. Photo by Matthew Lin
The club is a multidisciplinary society founded in 1904, and members such as Neil Armstrong, Sir Edmund Hillary and Jacques Piccard have since led field research in the most unexplored corners of the world, becoming the first on the surface of the moon, the summit of Mount Everest, the deepest point of the ocean and making countless more history-making achievements.
Selected from hundreds of teacher applicants from around the country, Maas-Baldwin’s name, along with the research and lessons he will develop during his time in South America, will be added to this great list of firsts.
“I am so excited to break open,” says the father of three, “out of my comfort zone, out of my routine, out of the teaching standards that I’m trying to meet and just really be an education explorer.”
The Boiling River is heated by rainwater traveling through deep faults in the Earth’s crust, reaching over 210 degrees Fahrenheit and making it the only one of its kind. Andrés Ruzo—geothermal scientist, conservationist and leader of Maas-Baldwin’s expedition—is the first to be granted permission to study this natural marvel.
Upon his return to Room 2, the adventurer hopes to foster a further sense of scientific literacy and engagement among his students, driving home the idea that exploration is not a task that stopped long ago by showing them how much of our world remains to be discovered.
“We’re not gonna get out of the mess we’re in if we don’t get people excited about the future,” he says, “and that, certainly, is the core mission of the Explorers Club.”
