You can contact LEARNZ, part of CORE Education, at:
Postal Address:
PO Box 13 678,
Christchurch 8141,
New Zealand
The trip encouraged a great deal of thinking, with students participating in discussions where they could develop empathy for others in disaster situations. They were able to do lots of reading and writing in a meaningful context.
All of my students, including Maori Pasifika and ESOL, have good understandings as a result of the LEARNZ What's the plan, Stan field trip. It was helpful having experts answer inquiry questions my student had, and videos helped certain students gain a deeper understanding.
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.
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.
Linked to emergency procedures practised during the year. Online, current, and relevant to curriculum.
Most children went home and planned emergency supplies and procedures. We integrated reading, mapping, videos, discussing, writing, maths, presenting ideas, as well as health and safety procedures. We had a lot of fun.
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.
A LEARNZ field trip is such a great motivator. The visuals meant that all students could participate in this field trip during ShakeOut.
Engagement levels were very high, and they were keen to know more following the video conferences, even though we were watching them after they were recorded. The field trip enabled me to support learners with barriers to their learning, e.g. reading, and enabled the class to continue to develop their self-directed/guided learning style.
Fitted with our science unit, values of looking after others, and furthered competencies such as speaking and listening and communicating using written language.
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.
Field trips like these help build connected, lifelong, sustainable learners.
Very effective, especially for those students who had the ability to engage in the audio conferences and ask their own questions. This was a great way to immerse my class in lots of information and to initiate lots of discussion. Thank you!
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.
It was like second nature to this term's inquiry and fitted like a glove. It was leveled and delivered at an excellent level and the content was perfect for my Year 8 class.
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.
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.
Motivating and interesting for my Year 4 class. Audio conferences great. They also especially enjoyed the videos and the ability to have text read to them was really helpful.
The material was relevant to my students, who could cover as much or as little as they were able to complete. With this field trip I had one able learner supporting a less able learner and they both produced some great work.
It led to a combination of other tasks including preparing their own households in the event of a disaster, getting to know their neighbourhood and even who can assist in times of need. Children can explore the information independently, challenge their understanding with the quizzes and then be encouraged to follow-up with related tasks and websites.
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.
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.
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.
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.