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

This term's topic is wearable arts, so the field trip was a perfect immersion into the world of performance and costuming. It was useful for increasing interest in the world and performing arts, and I was able to use the information and interactive questions as an effective reading activity, which I then used as a prompt for writing.
It's great to have SOLO linked to the lessons. Children are able to work on this independently and show responsibility for their learning.
The children really enjoyed this unit, as there was lots of awesome information relevant to them putting on our school production next term. I will use LEARNZ again because I love the field trips!
Fitted in nicely to the curriculum (The Arts) - I found the unit plan really helpful and a time saver. The background information gave a great range of information all in the one place.
Used this for my music unit this term. It was exciting for the kids. Great opportunities to participate and contribute to each other's learning. The learners used what they discovered in many ways.
Many accessed the website at home and shared the parts they enjoyed with their family, which was great. My boys loved the machinery and trucks. Great use of technology and targets students of all abilities.
It (the virtual field trip) helped students think about the environment and how they can contribute to looking after it. The topics related to what we were studying and we did't have to leave the school to experience it.
Effective with real time and current information that covered many facets of inquiry and opened up deeper thinking. Receiving the letter with the liner sample from CWS was fabulous! Established a very tangible connection for students.
Being an Enviro School, this field trip provided real depth to the enviro theme. As an e-learning class, all of the resources were readily available to the students so they could have some 'student choice' in what they did. This is what 'personalised learning' is all about.
We had just gone through a process of making submissions to our local council - it will be good to continue to ask them questions now that we are knowledgeable about the Kate Valley landfill.
This field trip was well pitched to my class level,informative and kept the students engaged. The field trip and its sustainability theme supports all learning areas of the curriculum especially science and social studies.
The field trip was followed by our trip to the Bromley Recycling Centre. So it ... completed the journey of our rubbish. Our children were engaged in following the trip and it prompted them to ask lots of questions.
It was a great follow on from our litter less lunch inquiry. Good for Social Action, informing our parents about choices when purchasing goods and disposing of the waste.
Very effective. We were able to consolidate a lot of the learning we had been doing since our trip to the Wellington landfill. It (the virtual field trip) catered to a wide range of students and met the learning of my year 4-6's very well. The students were active participants who were challenged to think critically.
As we move to inquiry learning, this is a wonderful tool for supporting teachers - scaffolding our professional development. For students, because there are several ways to access the information our lower ability readers can still complete tasks, supporting their literacy.
Looking at Landfills as intro to our Sustainability study and being able to access your fabulous resources and view audio conferences, fitted in so well. Samples (of the landfill liner) sent to us were an extra bonus.
I have been running an online class with my Social Studies class. The virtual field trip enabled the students to utilise a variety of tools and learning medium to enhance their learning. Linked with the topic "Sustainability" extremely well.
Under our sustainability inquiry during this field trip, students had a say in what they learned (student voice and agency); they were motivated to learn new things and were comfortable about this (personal agency); and they worked in groups to find answers (peer support). Also students are thinking about changes/actions needed in the future (future-focussed learning); and they worked with other students and people in the community who help them learn (connected agency).
Fabulous topic. Very easy and user friendly website, accessible for everyone. Thanks for sending the sample of the liner material used in landfills - it was very effective to see and feel the liner, and it covers a big area of technology.
Wonderful. Good resources, and meeting with the key competencies. Fantastic resource to fit in with science, social studies etc.
Students got to experience aspects of waste management that they could not in our local environment and have become really motivated to address waste management issues in our local area. I also find that special needs students are supported on Learnz by the differently leveled materials available and by the different types of media (Text, Audio, Video).
This trip was fantastic as it made direct links to sustainability and future focus. It was also ideal for our new collaborative teaching techniques which included students recording their ideas on iPads.
LEARNZ is another way to educate the students who are unable to physically participate in these field trips. A great medium for teaching. It's fun having 'live' updates. The students were intrigued with the covering up of the waste, the sheer size of the land area and of course...machinery! We are an Enviro School.
The field trip fitted with our environment and sustainability topic and saved a lot of resource development time which allowed me to focus more on my students learning. The content was readily accessible for my year 9 students and was effective because of the bite-size delivery e.g. short videos and diary entries that did not take too long to read.
This service is absolutely fantastic - have used it for years!