Curriculum

NZ Curriculum icon. All LEARNZ field trips targeting primary and secondary schools are closely linked to the New Zealand curriculum, in particular science, social studies and geography. They can also be used by other subject teachers.

Key concepts

Changing values, citizenship, electric trains, freight, future focus, government, infrastructure, innovation, land use, law, NZ Transport Agency, people and the environment, personal health, perspectives, rail, rail networks, resource use, risk management, risks, safety, sustainability, technological change, technology, transport, urban design, values, viewpoints, Wellington.

The New Zealand Curriculum - NZC

Key Competencies

LEARNZ virtual field trips contribute to the development of all five key competencies:

Key Competencies	Examples of Related Field Trip Components
Thinking	Constructing pre-organised and spontaneous questions to put to experts during Web conferences.
Using language, symbols and texts	Interpreting and making meaning of a variety of language and symbols in the Background Pages and throughout the web site.
Managing self	Numerous content-related Activities provide students with chances to engage with the material and create their own interpretation of the content.
Relating to others	Videos connect students with a range of expert opinions. Students listen actively when seeking answers to video questions.
Participating and contributing	LEARNZ Virtual Field Trips are an ideal medium for group-based topic inquiry. They also enable students to transfer new learning into the context of their own communities where they are encouraged to take action.

(See page 12-13 NZC 2007)

Values

The Rail Safety field trip encourages, models and explores these values:

innovation, inquiry and curiosity
diversity
community and participation

(see page 10 NZC 2007).

E-learning and pedagogy

The Rail Safety field trip directly involves learning that is supported by information and communication technology (ICT). In particular, the trip will:

Assist the making of connections by enabling students to enter and explore new learning environments, overcoming barriers of distance and time.
Facilitate shared learning by enabling students to join or create communities of learners that extend well beyond the classroom.
Enhance opportunities to learn by offering students virtual experiences and tools that save them time, allowing them to take their learning further (Page 36 NZC 2007).

Health and Physical Education


Strand	Achievement Aims
Personal health and physical development - A	A3 Safety management L2: Identify risk and use safe practices in a range of contexts. L3: Identify risks and their causes and describe safe practices to manage these. L4: Access and use information to make and action safe choices in a range of contexts. L5: Investigate and practise safety procedures and strategies to manage risk situations.
Healthy communities and environments - D	D1 Societal attitudes and values L2: Explore how people’s attitudes, values, and actions contribute to healthy physical and social environments. L3: Identify how health care and physical activity practices are influenced by community and environmental factors.

Social Science

Strand

Achievement Aims

Social Studies

Continuity and Change

Level 2: Understand how time and change affect people's lives
Level 4: Understand that events have causes and effects
Level 5: Understand how the ideas and actions of people in the past have had a significant impact on people’s lives

Place and Environment

Level 2 Understand how places influence people and people influence places
Level 3 Understand how people view and use places differently
Level 5 Understand how people's management of resources impacts on environmental and social sustainability

Identity, Culture, and Organisation

Level 4: Understand how formal and informal groups make decisions that impact on communities
Level 4: Understand how people participate individually and collectively in response to community challenges
Level 5: Understand how systems of government in New Zealand operate and affect people's lives, and how they compare with another system

Science


Strand	Achievement Aims
The Nature of Science	Participating and contributing Levels 1-2: Explore and act on issues and questions that link their science learning to their daily living. Level 3-4: Use their growing science knowledge when considering issues of concern to them. Understanding about science Levels 1-2: Appreciate that scientists ask questions about our world that lead to investigations and that open-mindedness is important because there may be more than one explanation. Level 3-4: Identify ways in which scientists work together and provide evidence to support their ideas. Communicating in science Level 5-6: Use a wider range of Science vocabulary, symbols, and conventions.
Planet Earth and Beyond	Earth systems Level 2-5; Explore and describe natural features and resources

Technology


Strand	Achievement Aims
Technological Knowledge	Technological Products Level 1-3; Understand the relationship between the materials used and their performance properties in technological products.
Technological Practice	Planning for practice Level 1-3; Undertake planning to identify the key stages and resources required to develop an outcome. Revisit planning to include reviews of progress and identify implications for subsequent decision making. Brief development Level 1-3; Describe the nature of an intended outcome, explaining how it addresses the need or opportunity. Describe the key attributes that enable development and evaluation of an outcome. Outcome development and evaluation Level 1-3; Investigate a context to develop ideas for potential outcomes. Trial and evaluate these against key attributes to select and develop an outcome to address the need or opportunity. Evaluate this outcome against the key attributes and how it addresses the need or opportunity.
Nature of Technology	Nature of Technology Level 1-3; Understand how technological development expands human possibilities and how technology draws on knowledge from a wide range of disciplines.

English

The selected processes and strategies indicators used in the table below are from Level three of the NZC, but aim to cover indicators from levels two to four.


Strand	Processes and Strategies Indicators	Example of Related Field Trip Component
Listening, Reading and Viewing	selects and reads for enjoyment and personal fulfilment recognises connections between oral, written, and visual language integrates sources of information and prior knowledge confidently to make sense of increasingly varied and complex texts thinks critically about texts with increasing understanding and confidence	printed copies of Background Pages could be part of classroom library making links between Audioconferences, Background Pages, and Videos Audioconferences, Videos, Diaries, and Ask-an-Expert can be used to make sense of Background Pages and Diaries and generate questions to put to experts for further clarification
Speaking, Writing and Presenting	uses an increasing understanding of the connections between oral, written, and visual language when creating texts creates a range of texts by integrating sources of information and processing strategies with increasing confidence	making the connection between Audioconferences, Background Pages, Videos, and own discussion when generating written responses assimilate information from Audioconferences, Background Pages, Videos, and Ask-an-Expert to create a range of texts

Geography

Level 6: Understand that natural and cultural environments have particular characteristics and how environments are shaped by processes that create spatial patterns.

NCEA Geography - Level 1

1.6 Describe aspects of a contemporary New Zealand geographic issue (AS91012)
1.8 Apply spatial analysis, with direction, to solve a geographic problem (AS91014)