You can contact LEARNZ, part of CORE Education, at:
Postal Address:
PO Box 13 678,
Christchurch 8141,
New Zealand
It helped students to see the key competencies in action in a real life situation outside of the classroom.
Connects with studets' wider lives, and engages the support of their families, whānau, and communities. Another vehicle that can be used to engage students with like-thinking students across the motu.
It was great to have real-life experiences recounted and for students to be able to communicate with scientists. The "What's the Plan, Stan?" topic was relevant, and seeing the conference call made students even more interested.
This field trip linked in really well with our Science Inquiry and the real world nature of the field trip, which the children felt connected to and motivated them to self-direct their learning and go further. I have had excellent learning from my children from the LEARNZ Virtual Field Trips. I think they are fantastic.
Children engaged with this resource and were excited to learn about disasters in this way. Background pages were a great support to the children's learning as they were easy to use as an independent or group or whole class activity, especially with two reading levels and with the read-aloud option.
I used it as part of my independent learning and group reading sessions. This field trip showed the children how they can be managing their own safety.
LEARNZ supports all areas of NZC - a wonderful resource!
The resources were excellent for research and reading tasks, and we learnt the importance of being prepared as we practiced our earthquake drills. Everything supported our unit of inquiry about natural disasters specific to New Zealand and my students valued being able to speak to experts in the field.
This field trip most definitely supported our students in becoming lifelong learners, who develop skills and strategies for real-life situations. Everything is well-researched and my Year 6-8 students and I particularly enjoy the presentation of the video clips.
Participation helped students to learn to work together as a team, so they were able to formulate appropriate questions to put to the experts. Really created an awareness of the need to have an emergency plan.
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.
Learnz virtual field trips are an integral part of our programme - students look forward to each one. What's the Plan, Stan? led to research around a range of topics - particularly in response to Web Conferences. Special needs students can access ALL aspects of the tour. Maori students are able to add context and their own ideas and understanding, from talks by representatives of local iwi.
All New Zealanders need to know this info - new immigrants were quite surprised by some of it. Ticks all of the boxes. Allows my diverse learners to engage in their own style with the material, which frees me up to move around and have quality conversations about the topic with each of the students - no crowd control needed! Brilliant!
My class enjoyed the little videos and learnt heaps about earthquakes. Linked well to managing self and community. It involves the children with things outside the classroom - connects them to real life NZ.
Linked very well with our school ShakeOut focus. Great for building Participating and Contributing, and Self-Management in students. Good design in that I can pick-and-choose what is useful for my class.
We were involved in the Nationwide 'Shake it Out' and this added value to the day. LEARNZ is a 'one stop shop' for me - it means I do not have to spend hours surfing on the internet to support my learning programmes.
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.
Field trips like these help build connected, lifelong, sustainable learners.
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.
Very effective not only because of its relevance to the area we live in but also because it enables students to think critically and develop connections within our community. Using LEARNZ trips encourages me to leverage digitally into other areas of my teaching.
It was a good starting unit for our term theme of survival and sustainability. The web site structure allowed them to take ownership of their learning and explore. Overall, it was a good way for students to hear from an expert and gain knowledge and insight.
Explanations were clear and my classroom were buzzing all week about the content. Students were keen to research and find out more information, they also spoke to their families about emergency plans and kits at home. Awesome fit for our school inquiry "Keeping myself Safe and Healthy".
Fantastic resource that our class really enjoyed once again. Thank you. Great planning guide. Easy to use and informative.
This was effective, interesting and aimed at the students' ability, with interesting quizzes too. Students learned a lot and they enjoyed the videos, which generated a lot of discussion. It was good not to be the one imparting the information, to have experts explain how things happen.