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

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 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.
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.
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.
Complemented the Key Competencies like self-management and organisation in terms of thinking about your own situation, talking to family about advanced planning etc.
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.
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.
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 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.
I always enjoy the LEARNZ Field Trips. They enhance my teaching.
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.
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.
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.
The background material was appropriate for my class and we asked a question in the live web conference, which was well answered.
This trip was extremely uselful as our inquiry in Term Four is "Keeping Ourselves Safe". Insights from the experts were particularly effective for my class.
The students loved Stan the dog and the way he acted out in the video. This held the younger viewers interest, but also reinforced the learning points. It made online learning very purposeful, more than just a research or processing tool. Talking to someone in Auckland from Picton was very powerful and engaging for learners.
Our students are manly visual learners so through watching the videos they were able to sustain attention longer and retain more information. Also every activity in the field trip, I believe, has in some way reflected the Key Competencies and Values in the Curriculum.
A LEARNZ field trip is such a great motivator. The visuals meant that all students could participate in this field trip during ShakeOut.
Fantastic link to the Great Kererū Count. Helped support learning in class and our participation in the count itself.
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.
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.
Was an awesome collaborative and digital experience for chn.
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.
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.
Helped to get students actively involved and participating in science and suitability projects.