Page 301 - Cultural Studies of Science Education

Chapter 22
Bringing the Invisible to Light: Art as Places
for Advocacy

Jamie Calkin

The river scene above is close to my heart. Not just because I painted it, but because
it represents one of my favorite childhood memories. The first thing my dad, brother,
and I would do when we got to our favorite river was to kicknet for crayfish, espe-
cially hellgrammites (larval dobsonflies) to fish with. Those positive experiences
helped me to pursue river advocacy in my high-school science classroom, specifically
stream testing. Later, I was able to take several graduate level courses in stream ecol-
ogy. I did a lot of kicknetting in them too. So I have a lot of responses to many of the
ideas discussed in Tina Pagan’s chapter. In this response, however, the following ideas
will be discussed: (1) my ambivalence in terms of the calls for educational reform, (2)
the value of stream testing/river advocacy in public school classrooms, and (3) river
advocacy, specifically in terms of the visual arts as a way of knowing.

J. Calkin
University of Georgia

D.J. Tippins et al. (eds.), Cultural Studies and Environmentalism, 275
Cultural Studies of Science Education, Vol. 3, DOI 10.1007/978-90-481-3929-3_22,
© Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2010