You can contact LEARNZ, part of CORE Education, at:
Postal Address:
PO Box 13 678,
Christchurch 8141,
New Zealand

My Year 3-4 students found the field trip extremely interesting, particularly as we had an ambassador join Shelley on the trip, too. We used the background pages for our reading programme and used the videos. There was a high degree of curiosity from the students, and their questions were answered at their level.
Engages the students. Interesting material which covers a breadth of issues and topic areas. Students gained an understanding of the Antarctic food web.
Rather than just researching independently about Antarctica, the students enjoyed having a variety of tools at their fingertips. The mixture of videos, photos, quiz etc kept students interested and being able to listen to the information rather than having to read it is highly beneficial.
My students have a different view of the world we live in after this field trip. My students love the field trips.
This LEARNZ Antarctica field trip has given me the confidence to continue to integrate digital technology into my programmes. My class were very engaged in their learning and it was well integrated through Literacy, Science and Mathematics.
Very appropriate for year 7/8 students. They absolutely loved being able to look at the resources, especially the photo/video content. It gave maximum opportunity to discuss what they were looking at and learning.
The students were highly motivated throughout this field trip. A fantastic resource that can be used easily within any classroom setting to support classroom programmes around skills and attitudes we are fostering with our children.
Interactive, engaging and highly motivating. Helps create partnership between home and school as students are extremely keen to share the field trip experiences with their parents.
It has been one of the best units I have taught in my 16 years of teaching - I would recommend it to anyone. I do think that it has been particularly successful in my classroom because we signed up for the extras such as the ambassador and the audio conferencing - that's what really made it come alive for me and the children in my class.
Excellent source of information for the students, aimed at their level, well presented and easy for the students to access and work with. Students found it extremely interesting and they learnt plenty of new things about Antarctica.
This is an effective and engaging part of my literacy programme. My Pasifika students, in particular, are much more engaged with a Learnz field trip than other academic activities. Especially relevant in meeting the vision of the NZ Curriculum.
This field trip was very appropriate for my Year 4 class as we used it under the theme of Kaitiakitanga. I feel the effectiveness (of the virtual field trip) can be gauged by the involvement and the questions asked by the children, and this Antarctica study has really had them enthused and doing independent research of their own. It is fascinating to discover how much knowledge the children take home and discuss with their families.
Fantastic links to the science curriculum AOs - lots of learning due high interest and combination of videos and great background information. Learnz is real world and happening at the moment. Where else can you get this sort of access to scientists and researchers?
Students were highly engaged, especially by the videos and photos of our ambassador. Students who need extra support with literacy really appreciated the easy to read background material.
Children loved every part of the experience- thoroughly engaging. Really cool for the students to be able to participate with a group outside of their immediate context!
My class of all boys love the LEARNZ background readings and activities; their non-fiction reading levels have all improved. They like the fact that they can work at their level and at their own pace. They all love science and anything (like LEARNZ) that helps develop their understanding of how our world works.
The idea of virtually going to Antarctic created such a buzz and a HUGE level of engagement. It's great the way LEARNZ leaders connect with students - they present everything in such an accessible way but have high expectations that students can and will be able to understand fairly sophisticated concepts.
For my Year 4 class enjoyed the learning experience. The virtual field trip raised their awareness of how special and unique Antarctica is and made them think about being the guardians of the area.
It motivated my top reading group. It was well organised, informative and something different to use as a reading tool/experience.
This was so engaging for our class. This is a great way to bring science alive in the classroom and it led to so many discussions.
This unit linked with our topic of sustainability and enabled cross curricular learning in a digital context. This type of learning resource helps students to work at their level, irrespective of where they start and their reading ability.
LEARNZ is a great way to study a topic using a medium that is accessible to all, even my low vision student and those with poor reading skills. The Antarctica field trip supported the science and social studies areas of the curriculum and much more, such as the key competencies.
The students particularly enjoyed the videos and the quizzes. They also commented on how much they liked how the diaries were written as if they were there. This LEARNZ Antarctica trip fitted in well with the Nature of Science aspects of questioning and using vocabulary that we were focussing on.
The LEARNZ virtual journey to Antarctica was great because EOTC is not possible in Antarctica for a school classroom to do for real. The opportunity to hear real scientists talk to the LEARNZ representative, Shelley Hersy, was very valuable and also helped us form some of our science goals.
Excellent presentation and a great learning experience for the students. Students really enjoyed a different approach to learning and it was good that the weaker readers were able to participate.