Sec values - Stewardship & Responsibility 5: Kerri

Teacher notes

In this session, we explore the storyworld Searching for Silence and meet Kerri, a marine scientist who studies ocean sounds to reduce noise pollution affecting marine life. This is the fifth lesson in the Stewardship and Responsibility unit of the Secondary Year of Values programme: **About this unit:** This unit explores the values of stewardship and responsibility through a carefully sequenced set of human stories from different global contexts. The unit supports students to examine how responsibility can take many forms depending on context, scale, power and perspective. Across the six lessons, students encounter responsibility as global environmental action, moral accountability, community resilience, everyday choice, scientific inquiry and long-term care. The sequence moves from visible, large-scale action towards quieter, less obvious forms of stewardship that rely on evidence, patience and sustained attention. By the end of the unit, students are encouraged to think critically about responsibility not as guilt or blame, but as an ongoing process of noticing, questioning and responding - locally, nationally and globally. **Summary of Storyworld**: Kerri is a marine scientist who listens to the ocean using underwater microphones to study how noise pollution affects sea life. She scuba dives off Colombia’s coast and collects sound data over weeks to understand how animals like humpback whales use sound, and how human-made noises disrupt them. Through her work in bioacoustics, Kerri is helping develop quieter technology and inspiring others to protect the natural soundscape of the sea. **National Curriculum Links:** Citizenship (KS3) How evidence and expertise can inform decisions and actions. Citizenship (KS4) The role of evidence, science and research in shaping public policy and environmental action. PSHE (KS3) L1: Study, organisational, research and presentation skills. L23: The importance of assessing evidence and different perspectives. PSHE (KS4) L27: Strategies to critically assess bias, reliability and accuracy in information. H11: Making informed decisions and accessing reliable sources of information. Science Working scientifically: observation, data collection and interpretation.