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

This field trip has helped me to step out of the classroom and look at what is on our doorstep. It is great for the children to learn about authentic contexts.
It provided further background for our ecology unit and class trip work. The field trip was appropriate for my class studying the wetland biome in New Zealand and we would use more of the resources next time, but this was a good beginning, looking at the videos and the photos.
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.
Love the SOLO Taxonomy integration - that is the kind of thing we love! Great model for us of how to use such tools. The field trip was part of our Wonderful Wetlands term focus. We also went for an afternoon to Travis Wetlands in Christchurch. Good contrast of virtual and hands on. LEARNZ gives access to environments and experts that are pure quality.
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.
It is an amazing opportunity for the students to able to experience natural NZ. As this is our first virtual field trip we are busy exploring and familiarising ourselves with the website and using it as a warm up for Kauri (the next field trip).
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.
It was very relevant as we visited our own local Maungatautari wetland, so it was great to compare.
The children were fascinated by the virtual field trip videos. They learnt a lot of new ideas and words and talked about it for days. The field trip was effective as it showed our students that other people did what we do.
It supported excellence, high expectations, learning to learn, diversity and environmental sustainability, as well as the NZC level 4. It ticked all our Level 4 boxes. Great resource. My class can't wait to use it again.
Used to support digital devices in science at high school and an opportunity to experience the South Island. Some videos included Maori content - used as a role model for students. Pronunciation of Maori place names helped me as a teacher, as I try to improve and utilise Te Reo in the science class.
The field trip supported all of the Key Competencies, attitudes and values of the NZ Curriculum, and our own school Curriculum.
Comprehensive resources in a local context. My Year 10 student gains: posting a question to an expert, literacy from background reading.
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.
Science is an area we are trying to strengthen and this was a perfect opportunity to put the students in a real life context or study. The students were really engaged in the topic. I am looking forward to sharing with my students both the Antarctic and ANZAC Memorial Park trips. Both are topics we were already studying.
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.
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.
The activities suited cooperative work. The māori perspective was relevant throughout. We loved the vocab lists on each background activity. Again learning in a real context for the children - of all abilities and cultures makes it truly meaningful.