You can contact LEARNZ, part of CORE Education, at:
Postal Address:
PO Box 13 678,
Christchurch 8141,
New Zealand
Testimonials
Memorial Park
Linked to Social Sciences and linked well with build up to Anzac unit.
Clare Murdoch from Riverview School
We had looked at the videos from Memorial Park 1 as a warm up exercise, so this followed on perfectly. After watching the videos from last November, had a student in Wellington for the weekend and was interested enough to take parents to see what was happening with the park, to update class before the 2nd LEARNZ visit. LEARNZ field trips have become an important part of learning in my senior class. Regardless of ability, students are loving the experiences.
Gabriel Hawke from St Mary's School (Hastings)
Highly engaging, complimented our topic "Our Place". Supported many literacy skills, thinking, reflecting, questioning, discovering.
Karen Edwards from Brightwater School
Best comment was from a student who is going to Wellington and is planning to go and take a look at the construction site. It covered a range of curriculum areas and also looked at beliefs and attitudes. There was some challenging new vocabulary in this topic which was very good for the students. Other language keywords were great for low level NESB student.
Fraser Campbell from Riwaka School
Takahē
LEARNZ field trips are a good tool to provide a context to a Science programme at the Y7-9 level. Our topic was focused on L4 of curriculum looking at NZ birds with regards to conservation. Used one activity for national standard assessment.
Rachel Mortimer from Columba College
My Reading programme was never so engaging. The background pages provided a realistic context. I gave the class the Takahe 20 Questions before we began and then after the field trip - the improvement was quite amazing.
Graham Elsmore from Christian Renewal School
LEARNZ field trips provide an inclusive blended elearning programme that has heightened student learning and enthusiasm for learning in my class. The information available to support planning and implementation of classroom programmes is amazing. The curriculum integration opportunities LEARNZ field trips presents has provided my students with a rich literacy programme. Parent feedback from our annual teaching and learning survey provided positive feedback about how effective and apparent the students learning is when participating on a LEARNZ field trip.
Katrina Laurie from Clifton Terrace Model School
This is a fantastic programme. The field trips are well organised and highly informative. The field trip catered to the learning needs and abilities of my diverse year 3 class. Special needs students were able to access the same information as their classmates, using listening tools and videos so that they could take part in class discussions. My higher ability students were able to complete their own online research.
Shelley Galloway from Mt Somers Springburn School
Freshwater Ecology
As we are going to all these places for our school camp in September it was awesome to give them some background and really light the fire of the students. The activities were at the right level and there was a range of interesting things to do. The kids were very enthusiastic and were looking forward to each new day and what was happening to the experts. The learning they got from it was very real. I have got some amazing writing from the students as they try to explain complex terms like ecology and such like. It was a really good experience for me and my class, they learnt a lot about the topic and themselves. Brilliant. Have already recommended to many colleagues both in my school and at other schools.
Gregory New from Rukuhia School
Our students loved being able to manage their own learning from the website and being introduced to new experiences such as the audio conferences. Great for the learners who have difficulties with literacy - easy background and listening features are excellent for them.
Susan Andrews from Cashmere Primary School
This method of learning was highly suited to a select group of my Year 9 students as it allowed them to self-manage, focus on learning, and at a later stage 'practice' through an EOTC field trip to a local freshwater stream. Excellent and most effective.
Ira Seitzer from Kamo High School
Having a variety of reading levels and activities helped the children to participate well. I have Pasifika children who thoroughly enjoyed the trip and participated fully - even forming the questions and talking on the audio conference. It gave us an opportunity to do some learning that was way outside our resources and actual ability to 'be there'. It gave a wider perspective to our thinking about water.
Jane Sutherland from Cornestone Christian School
The experience that my students got was fabulous. They gained skills in manaakitanga, independent learning, and the ability to refine questions through inquiry. All my students, in particular my boys, thoroughly enjoyed the activities Beforehand, a lot of my students did not understand the magnitude of sustainability but there was lots of information that helped students understand it in the context of freshwater ecology. As a bi lingual class my students enjoyed using the Māori kupu in our word wall, using them in conversations with their peers and asking lots of questions about the Māori kupu in general.
Trina Bennett from Finlayson Park School
We use material from completed field trips (Freshwater Ecology and Whio) on school camp at Tongaririo which provides excellent, authentic, high motivation support for our Year 7 students and relates well to our similar interets in Taranaki. I certainly appreciate the quality of the online resources that LEARNZ have produced. Thanks very much to the LEARNZ team.
Andrew McAllister from Sacred Heart Girls Collge New Plymouth
Outstanding programme. Children were able to visit another locality and compare it to our work with DoC on our local river. Added an extra dimension to our Inquiry. Our special needs students enjoyed the visuals and were able to contribute to class discussions.
Julie O'Neill from Opawa School
It is real time, here and now as well as New Zealand info and presenters which all makes it more authentic learning for children. The field trips offer current visual, aural and authentic learning for children, without a huge amount of time and preparation on the teachers part. The teacher can learn along side the children. It's easy to access, well planned and organised and encourages a passion for our beautiful country.
Anneke Esselbrugge from Rukuhia School
We were teaching about NZ Rivers as a module class, combining Science and Social Studies, so it fitted the achievement objectives perfectly for our subject areas. Awesome!
Sarah Barge from Mountainview High School
Supports the school curriculum in innovative ways. We live in this area and students recognised many visual features and people interviewed. It reinforced classroom learnings as it linked to this term's curriculum studies.
Helen Gibson from Hilltop School
They are so relevant to the children who are at an impressionable age. They are now telling others what we should all be doing re health of our water sources. They were so focussed upon the videos and the short reading tasks held their attention and were relevant to what we were doing. The cultural component was relevant to all children, not specifically to just Maori or Pasifika ones. It is such a great resource for teachers and students alike.
Valerie Moratti from Havelock North Intermediate
It is a fun and educational way for the students to learn. It gives the opportunity for students to view places they may never get the opportunity to see.
Wendy Gibson-Chance from Opawa School
The children are completely enthralled with taking a virtual trip in their own back yard - they have taken their learning home and are working on informing others of their new knowledge. We are a Year 4 class so at the earlier stage of the Learnz system but it was really easy for the kids to get to grips with. It prompted much learned conversation and interaction from the children, excellent. Each of the Key Competencies was well covered.
Sarah Sherriff from Waipahihi School
It gave a real context for elaborating on the aqueous chemistry we are studying. It gave a chance to explore a 'real world' environment from the comfort of our classroom, without spending the time and resources to commit to a full-blown field trip.
Paul Millican from St Margaret's College
Because it was so interactive the children were 'hooked in' from the beginning. Listening comprehension was made to be fun as it was learning they were interested in. It covered everything we wanted to know and what we were learning about.
Kylie Parkes from Waipahihi School
My class is very multi-cultural and has a varied spread of ability. The field trip allowed an inclusive learning programme to take place where every student felt success! All students were highly engaged and motivated ... I cannot emphasise this enough as the field trip created such a buzz of excitement, they could hardly wait to see what was happening within the field trip every day. As a teacher it was an exhilarating experience to see every student caught up in the learning. The knowledge the students gained from the field trip developed critical thinking skills. Everything is available on the LEARNZ website - it's a wonderful resource that creates real life science experiences for students. As a teacher it is easy to navigate the website and use the resources available. It also enables me as a teacher to creatively adapt resources/ knowledge for the students in my class.
Katrina Laurie from Clifton Terrace Model School
Tied into the 1.3 Geography Sustainability of tourism in Tongariro National Park. The videos gave great insight into the ecology of the area and how this ties in with all other things.
Bevan Hunter from Wanganui High School