You can contact LEARNZ, part of CORE Education, at:
Postal Address:
PO Box 13 678,
Christchurch 8141,
New Zealand
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.
Wonderfully appropriate. Supported our science focus very well, as well as the key competencies of self management, relating to others (sharing tablets, working together) and texts (reading and responding to the information).
Easy to use and great resources. The 2 levels of background pages were appropriate. Short videos with questions meant students didn't get bored.
The answers were in-depth from the three experts for the areas that we are investigating. An easy way to conduct a field trip. Also very accessible for those with learning challenges.
Watching the students get excited about their role (we were a speaking school, which was a breeze) and then watching them make connections in their learning, has been a real highlight. They built connections with the area the trip took us to and linked it to our local community and loved connecting what they were reading and hearing with specific people.
Many of my students found the Māori Tikanga section the most interesting. I also liked that the learning was rewindable and allowed for student agency. The opportunity to experience a virtual field trip really excited the children and motivated them to want to find out more, as it provided a meaningful and authentic learning context that included SOLO and built on our own 'Freshwater Frolicking' field trip to The Groynes.
Our school curriculum focuses on the environment and having outside experts present information is a fantastic way to extend my students' learning and knowledge.
Set at the perfect level for My Class of year 7/8 students. They took in so much information! There are lots of different ways the students are engaged through text, video, listening, and interacting. It was good to have the Māori aspects included in the Wetlands study.
The quality of resources is exemplary. Being able to access audio to support the readings is crucial for a number of learners in my class. The field trip met all of the learning intentions outlined by the LEARNZ overview and opened new lines of discussion and knowledge for all students.
9 out of 10 of my children felt that they enjoyed this way of learning, and I can see a deeper curiosity for the world around them. They were able to take away more information than I thought possible.
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.
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.
I used this trip as part of my reading programme. Using ICT helped the children who were more visual learners. It enabled the children (Year 4-6) to use and improve their reading strategies across the curriculum. It motivated the children in their learning and was enjoyable for them. It put learning into an authentic context and gave the students easy access to experts who could extend their understanding.
Another valuable and appropriate topic from the LEARNZ team, as we knew very little beforehand about wetlands and their importance. LEARNZ is an excellent education tool.
We enjoyed the audio conferences - the children who were involved in them will never forget that experience. This was the first time I have been on a virtual field trip and was pleasantly surprised at how much 5 year olds were able to get from it. Having Percy the Pukeko go as our ambassador helped the 5 year olds follow along. There was also lots of discussion to and fro between the children and parents.
It was perfect for exploring our theme - Bounce Back / Adapt. My students loved talking to an expert.
Many of our reading and writing strategies and progressions were able to be met by the field trip, as well as integrating our topic studies. I also used the diary readings as a shared reading activity, which was great. Students recorded questions throughout the audio conferences and we posted them in the Ask an Expert forum. Shelley responded that evening and we were able to integrate that into the classroom programme the next day. The students loved seeing their personal questions answered.
It matched our concept for the term 'Our Place' - the way we interact with living things affects our place. We will use LEARNZ again because it motivates the students, information is at your fingertips, it has well informed experts and it's lots of fun.
It is a great way to learn. Students are made aware of important conservation issues in a fun way. The various activities cover a variety of learning styles.The topics can often be linked to local communities.
The students found the videos and photos to be very interesting. They developed their knowledge of pest threats in NZ and also developed a positive attitude to how they can help with campaigns like Project Crimson & Living Legends. LEARNZ is an excellent programme.
They are well planned and provide us with a link to experts and sites we would not usually visit. Excellent for developing literacy and numeracy in a purposeful context.
It complements my classroom programme and provides fantastic learning opportunities undercover of ICT.
Great to learn about our New Zealand icons. I always enjoy Learnz and have been using it for the last 6 or 7 years because it is an absolute gem to all teachers and students.
I find the field trips a great way of introducing vocab and scientific language to students. As well as teaching inquiry skills and science knowledge students are reading for information and engaging with text, video and audio information to present findings.
We are looking at setting up tracking tunnels at school as we prepare for a lizard garden, so to see the kids here doing the same was hugely encouraging. It was great to discuss conservation issues and compare Kepler's challenges with our own.