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

It was really successful and appealed to both boys and girls, who embraced the whole opera idea. Students' KCs developed well and the use of devices proved really successful. Great resource: cross-curricular, useful for literacy, and Maori keyword translations were appreciated.
Fantastic use of The Arts in the NZ curriculum and all key competencies. Highly engaging for all students.
My online (distance) class was focussing on a topic about creativity this term so the Opera Trip was a great complement to this. LEARNZ trips offer rich, pertinent learning about the place we live in.
I used it with a learning group within my class and it supported their understanding very well. The flexibility in the level of involvement was great. We joined last minute based on an emerging interest/need within the group and it engaged them wonderfully. Great use of eLearning.
LEARNZ is a fun way to learn, that exposes students to things that are happening nationally and globally. It is real life learning. Lots of fun and high interest videos. Students could relate to the (performers') need to practise, and rest too, which links nicely to lots of classroom learning areas.
We had just gone through a process of making submissions to our local council - it will be good to continue to ask them questions now that we are knowledgeable about the Kate Valley landfill.
This field trip was well pitched to my class level,informative and kept the students engaged. The field trip and its sustainability theme supports all learning areas of the curriculum especially science and social studies.
The field trip was followed by our trip to the Bromley Recycling Centre. So it ... completed the journey of our rubbish. Our children were engaged in following the trip and it prompted them to ask lots of questions.
It was a great follow on from our litter less lunch inquiry. Good for Social Action, informing our parents about choices when purchasing goods and disposing of the waste.
Very effective. We were able to consolidate a lot of the learning we had been doing since our trip to the Wellington landfill. It (the virtual field trip) catered to a wide range of students and met the learning of my year 4-6's very well. The students were active participants who were challenged to think critically.
As we move to inquiry learning, this is a wonderful tool for supporting teachers - scaffolding our professional development. For students, because there are several ways to access the information our lower ability readers can still complete tasks, supporting their literacy.
I have been running an online class with my Social Studies class. The virtual field trip enabled the students to utilise a variety of tools and learning medium to enhance their learning. Linked with the topic "Sustainability" extremely well.
Looking at Landfills as intro to our Sustainability study and being able to access your fabulous resources and view audio conferences, fitted in so well. Samples (of the landfill liner) sent to us were an extra bonus.
Under our sustainability inquiry during this field trip, students had a say in what they learned (student voice and agency); they were motivated to learn new things and were comfortable about this (personal agency); and they worked in groups to find answers (peer support). Also students are thinking about changes/actions needed in the future (future-focussed learning); and they worked with other students and people in the community who help them learn (connected agency).
Wonderful. Good resources, and meeting with the key competencies. Fantastic resource to fit in with science, social studies etc.
Fabulous topic. Very easy and user friendly website, accessible for everyone. Thanks for sending the sample of the liner material used in landfills - it was very effective to see and feel the liner, and it covers a big area of technology.
Students got to experience aspects of waste management that they could not in our local environment and have become really motivated to address waste management issues in our local area. I also find that special needs students are supported on Learnz by the differently leveled materials available and by the different types of media (Text, Audio, Video).
This trip was fantastic as it made direct links to sustainability and future focus. It was also ideal for our new collaborative teaching techniques which included students recording their ideas on iPads.
LEARNZ is another way to educate the students who are unable to physically participate in these field trips. A great medium for teaching. It's fun having 'live' updates. The students were intrigued with the covering up of the waste, the sheer size of the land area and of course...machinery! We are an Enviro School.
The field trip fitted with our environment and sustainability topic and saved a lot of resource development time which allowed me to focus more on my students learning. The content was readily accessible for my year 9 students and was effective because of the bite-size delivery e.g. short videos and diary entries that did not take too long to read.
This service is absolutely fantastic - have used it for years!
It really fitted in with our Wellbeing Inquiry and also with us as a Green-Gold school. All learners benefit from LEARNZ in multiple ways but ESOL students partcularly benefit from using the button which allows them to listen to the text being read, while they read themselves. This helps them with new technical vocabulary and helps them to access the curriculum effectively.
We are looking at product lifecycle in our design class and it showed what happens to the end of products when put into rubbish, and the importance of designers to design for end of life. It enabled students to critically think through what their consumption produces and it was a great way to show students something without having to physically go.
The definition of waste was a fantastic platform for discussion. Getting the layers from the lining of Kate Valley was very cool and made it that bit more interactive.
In a very powerful way students were able to work collaboratively and at their own pace. Practical as our school is isolated rural, 40km from the nearest township and our class is mixed ability Year 6-8.