You can contact LEARNZ, part of CORE Education, at:
Postal Address:
PO Box 13 678,
Christchurch 8141,
New Zealand
Testimonials
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
Wetland Biodiversity
Our Inquiry was Sustainability this term and students really got into the field trip. It was a spectacular way for students to practice the Key competencies and meet people online they would otherwise have no access to.
Karen Blatchford from Tai Tapu School
The field trip provided good enrichment activities with plenty of scope for differentiation. The classes were involved, interested and thinking. They were able to relate the videos to their own experiences and knowledge. The field trips are useful for working collaboratively with other teachers and also as a basis for an enrichment model of gifted and talented education.
Leone Baylis from Fairburn School
The students loved it. It gave me an easy way to extend the knowledge of my more able students while also engaging my less able students. Great for peer work. Because of the way this was set up, I was able to create links to my class page, which encouraged students to access the class page out of school hours. We are also currently in the early stages of Enviro-schools; this helped get students thinking about what is going on around us as well as human impact.
Marcia Ferguson from Rosebank School Balclutha
Students got to continue to learn about the environment (following on from involvement in the Virtual Great Walks field trip). The detail and facts included in the background pages made things more interesting to read (or listen to!).
Marcia Ferguson from Rosebank School Balclutha
We used it as part of immersion for starting off on our journey of restoring a Wetland. It prompted questions, wonderings and enhanced their interest. Being able to send along an Ambassador was fantastic as it helped the younger members of our Wetlands group relate to what was happening.
Jillian Hodgson from Shotover Primary School
It saves teachers valuable time. It is great to have the experts and a meaningful context for inquiry learning. My Year 3/4s learnt about braided rivers and were able to develop open questions for the audio conference. It was good to have a voice-over for the background pages. The panoramic section was excellent for making inferences.
Lynn Burrell from Waikite Valley School
LEARNZ adds depth to a study, and purposeful inquiry for reading groups. The background reading and the videos gave students a wide appreciation of the diversity of our native wetlands.
Katherine Webster from Waimairi School
The field trips are informative, exciting and a great learning experience. Relevant to all learners because it used correct language for te reo maori and showed how LEARNZ value te ao maori through the concepts explored. The newsletters were also great, with lots of easy steps.
Nicola Burtenshaw from Longburn School
Great engagement in our inquiry topic. Great content in differentiated forms. Connected to the environment and groups involved in community. Experts' content was put into language the students could understand.
Stuart Cooke from Methven School
This type of learning appealed to my Year 6 boys. It's a good way to use ICT in the classroom for learning interesting topics. It can be flexible and self-managed. It was helpful being able to access it online to suit our timetable and good that students could access the information at home.
Stephanie Johnson from St Joseph's School Timaru
Very motivating. Students were engaged.
Gillian Taylor from Cockle Bay School
Ties in to EOTC with the school camp this week which will focus on ecological sustainability. Students are already talking about the Rangitata River with new terminology. The boys were especially entranced with it all.
Jason Shaw from Geraldine High School