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

My class always enjoys the Learnz Field Trips, regardless of the trip we enrol in. The LEARNZ teachers are so enthusiastic, it really teaches the children things that I can't.
Linking a community issue with young adults (in this way with LEARNZ), has been empowering for the students. They are able to contribute to conversations outside the classroom using science and cultural based knowledge.
Fabulous e-learning experience! Very appropriate to our Inquiry theme of Survival. Very effectively presented. Children really enjoyed the videos and questions that were included which helped them focus on key ideas. Enthusiasm overflowed into homework! Love the idea of having background notes read so children of all levels can listen and learn. Really liked the integration of Te Reo. Can be used by a range of learning levels in a variety of ways.
Engaging and can be tailored to the specific needs of a small group of students. Uses all of the Key Competencies. Enabled students to self regulate their learning.
Great that kauri dieback was in the news, while we were studying it on the virtual field trip. Good integration with Literacy, Te Reo, Key Competencies, Science, and Environmental Education. Wide range of topics, relevant, real life and happening now.
The virtual field trip worked well for my mixed ability y9 science class. It engaged the students and it was relevant to the curriculum. The class enjoyed the wide range of activities. One of my students is a boarder, who has iwi connections, with the far north and kauri forests - the kauri are taonga to her iwi. She was very engaged in this unit of work.
It is visual, relevant, easy to access, and makes good use of technology to be virtually there. Very relevant and topical in Northland.
As an Enviro school it is wonderful to be interfacing with experts in the field on real issues in real time. Some of my students go onto Learnz to explore further as additional home learning. Great to hear them educating their parents about what's happening to our mighty taonga, Kauri. LEARNZ is the most marvellous educational resource for NZ teachers. This is my 14th year with Learnz and I get great great support if I need it. The staff are truly amazing at every level.
Kauri is one of our taonga, and this field trip supported our role as tangata whenua and kaitiaki. A great resource and easy to use with the class who learnt so much about the kauri and the disease affecting it.
It illustrated clearly community engagement, ecological sustainability, participating and contributing. Students were interested. It also helped in the Nature of Science ... seeing how the community can work with the scientists on an issue.
Easy to implement and a wide variety of resources to choose from. We made a kauri forest in our class with tracks and did some science experiments. Being hands on the students really enjoyed the new learning and have retained the information well.
We learnt things that were directly related to our topic of kaitiakitanga and sustainability. It is great to have the background information, videos and photographs that support a NZ topic.
Related to our personal environment, local issues, and experiences at camp. Very relevant to developing a MLE and BYOD environment. Combined literacy, science, social science. Andrew (the LEARNZ Teacher) was friendly, engaging, and related well to students and experts.
We are in a reasonably remote area and it is great that we can interact with other schools. The Web Quest was fantastic for a range of abilities. LEARNZ is wonderful for those students who learn in different ways e.g. listening (and they can refer back to recordings to check information). We are now interested in "adopting" a local reseve and planting some natives, including kauri.
It provided a quality opportunity for integrating eLearning into the Inquiry programme. As part of our inquiry we will be researching possible sites at school and in our local area to plant several Kauri. I really like the questions and activities for further inquiry in the green boxes at the bottom of the Background pages. The videos also provided excellent class discussion with the questions that were attached to each video. Many children revisited the videos frequently during the trip.
Adds to the learning experiences of our topic studies. We are studying kauri dieback using the "Keep Kauri Standing - Kauri Dieback" school resource so this trip supported that learning. It visited some of the areas we had already learned about and added some information from experts that helped to answer some of the questions we had.
... brought the curriculum to life. Opened the eyes of the class to all the interesting things going on around them.
This Learnz Geohazards site allowed my students to work at their own pace and helped them to become drivers of their own learning.
Excellent resource that can be picked up by all students or just one who wants to delve into an area at a greater intensity. Self regulated, great background to an area of interest.
Great material, age appropriate, to generate interest and questions. Great engagement. Students gained knowledge of volcanoes and geothermal activity, connected to wider New Zealand.
The live link up is great. Great to be able to observe, listen to experts at work. Real life context.
Childern learnt a lot about geohazards in NZ, other than just earthquakes. So easy to incorporate into the programme; can 'take' children to parts of NZ that we are too far away from; can access any time after the trip begins; has good range of material that engages children eg photos and videos and background pages...
Students gained through the Science strand - Nature of Science - How scientists work.
The field trip introduced children to real scientists, gave them ideas and stimulated curiosity. Students came to realise that science occurs in their own back yard, not just overseas.
My class were hooked and the videos were great as they helped my kids understand geohazards better (visual). The class are now planning their next steps 'how to prepare'. I will use LEARNZ again as it provides interesting topics that affect my class and ensures they develop their own thinking/questions to explore (what now? what next?). Also oportunities for research, reading and exploring non fiction texts, science case and effect.