You can contact LEARNZ, part of CORE Education, at:
Postal Address:
PO Box 13 678,
Christchurch 8141,
New Zealand
Explanations were clear and my classroom were buzzing all week about the content. Students were keen to research and find out more information, they also spoke to their families about emergency plans and kits at home. Awesome fit for our school inquiry "Keeping myself Safe and Healthy".
Participation helped students to learn to work together as a team, so they were able to formulate appropriate questions to put to the experts. Really created an awareness of the need to have an emergency plan.
Field trips like these help build connected, lifelong, sustainable learners.
At Year 2 level, fire drills, earthquake drills etc need more context, and this field trip provided that. This field trip helped students to become engaged in society by having a better understanding of how good citizens understand and prepare for disasters.
The amount of information my students learn in these mini units is impressive and they generally retain more knowledge this way. Thanks for all the effort you put in. Saves on my planning too.
Activities (interactive) are great. Visiting places and discussing in short (video) clips are useful. Students had information at a variety of levels and had access to an expert, allowing teacher to become facilitator.
It was a good starting unit for our term theme of survival and sustainability. The web site structure allowed them to take ownership of their learning and explore. Overall, it was a good way for students to hear from an expert and gain knowledge and insight.
The children love tuning in live and this really motivates them. We had been on the LEARNZ Kaikōura earthquakes trip earlier in the year and this was a great follow up.
I find the teacher support section very helpful and have never thought, "I wish they had this here". Students were able to read and understand the easy background information and were able to discuss the ideas put forward, then form evacuation plans for school and home.
This is a fantastic resource for all as there is a lot of information compiled into a number of units. We are ever so grateful for the hard work put into making LEARNZ virtual field trips.
The children were engaged and enjoyed having their questions answered in real time. All the background material with links to NZC was fantastic and we could weave this in to our reading, writing, health and science learning.
The field trip really helped the children to think and plan ahead what they would do to keep safe in an emergency. The videos linked to disasters that could happen in our area.
Very effective not only because of its relevance to the area we live in but also because it enables students to think critically and develop connections within our community. Using LEARNZ trips encourages me to leverage digitally into other areas of my teaching.
It worked in well with the nationwide earthquake drill and made students think about how to deal with different emergencies. Everything came into the Key Competencies, Health and PE curriculum, and our values at school.
The subject was national and we localised it by making a plan for our schools which we shared with the whole community. The key competency of 'managing self' is very relevant here and the activities and videos were great.
LEARNZ virtual fieldtrips are incredibly engaging. There is plenty of supportive material, the experts are effective communicators with a wealth of knowledge, and the experience really gets the children buzzing! Thanks for everything you do!
The fieldtrip background pages allowed my Year 8 class of very diverse abilities to engage at their various levels - at least a quarter of the class really appreciated the audio text! It was also a great opportunity for my students to integrate inquiry learning into our course.
Very useful for convincing children that we really do need to prepare for a disaster. Being an e-learning class, we made a disaster plan for our own family. The variety of content is more engaging than normal classroom activities, and this helps to motivate priority learners.
Excellent and effective in students gaining an appreciation of our unique environment. Retiring and I want to thank you for providing this service. I have used it through out many many years of teaching, and have always found it to be of a very high standard.
We live in an area where Kererū are of significant importance and this really highlighted this for the students. Covered a wide area of teaching specific NZ values.
Very appropriate and engaging both due to the focus of the unit and the delivery. Extremely motivating for the students learning. Great to have the personal touch where the children get to interact with Andrew. Very relevant and future focused.
Was an awesome collaborative and digital experience for chn.
Helped to get students actively involved and participating in science and suitability projects.
Kererū Count was of benefit to me as a teacher to enhance engagement with Maori students in science at both the junior year 9 and senior year 12 class. I also used this field trip with my classes to tie in with DOC Conservation Week.
It supported teaching about the principles and values of the NZC for this group of 5-10 year old students, who are a part of the school's environmental team. It has been a driver for these students to form connections with those experts in our community who can support their projects, such as biosecurity officers at the regional council and local iwi.