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

This LEARNZ Antarctica field trip has given me the confidence to continue to integrate digital technology into my programmes. My class were very engaged in their learning and it was well integrated through Literacy, Science and Mathematics.
This unit linked with our topic of sustainability and enabled cross curricular learning in a digital context. This type of learning resource helps students to work at their level, irrespective of where they start and their reading ability.
This field trip was very appropriate for my Year 4 class as we used it under the theme of Kaitiakitanga. I feel the effectiveness (of the virtual field trip) can be gauged by the involvement and the questions asked by the children, and this Antarctica study has really had them enthused and doing independent research of their own. It is fascinating to discover how much knowledge the children take home and discuss with their families.
Having all of the Antarctica resources together makes it very easy for students to self-explore the parts of the topic they are especially interested in. The real benefit for us has been having all of the audio with the readings for my lower readers; they prefer to listen and the NZ accent of the reader is a bonus.
The context of this Antarctica learning trip was helpful to discuss the ESS topic (L5): Earth systems. Students learnt lots of new things about Antarctica and sea ice formation, with some good extra teaching material and activities to extend students.
Fantastic links to the science curriculum AOs - lots of learning due high interest and combination of videos and great background information. Learnz is real world and happening at the moment. Where else can you get this sort of access to scientists and researchers?
This is an effective and engaging part of my literacy programme. My Pasifika students, in particular, are much more engaged with a Learnz field trip than other academic activities. Especially relevant in meeting the vision of the NZ Curriculum.
For my Year 4 class enjoyed the learning experience. The virtual field trip raised their awareness of how special and unique Antarctica is and made them think about being the guardians of the area.
Real life engagement with scientists on ice was interesting - great for students to see what we had been studying in real life.
Students said it was great because it simulated going to Antartica and it was awesome seeing (our ambassador) BuzzBee there. It was easy to set up my programme using Google classroom so students and their families could see what was happening whenever they wanted.
It motivated my top reading group. It was well organised, informative and something different to use as a reading tool/experience.
The idea of virtually going to Antarctic created such a buzz and a HUGE level of engagement. It's great the way LEARNZ leaders connect with students - they present everything in such an accessible way but have high expectations that students can and will be able to understand fairly sophisticated concepts.
The LEARNZ virtual journey to Antarctica was great because EOTC is not possible in Antarctica for a school classroom to do for real. The opportunity to hear real scientists talk to the LEARNZ representative, Shelley Hersy, was very valuable and also helped us form some of our science goals.
We loved the field trip! Thanks so much for all that you do. It is such an engaging way to connect with various areas of the curriculum.
The LEARNZ personnel and experts feel like real friends or students' own personal teacher, which helps to make the learning experiences very potent. They field trips like Antarctica are great and I just love the work you all do to make them interesting and engaging. Thank you.
The students particularly enjoyed the videos and the quizzes. They also commented on how much they liked how the diaries were written as if they were there. This LEARNZ Antarctica trip fitted in well with the Nature of Science aspects of questioning and using vocabulary that we were focussing on.
The field trip supported the development of Key Competencies, and provided up-to-date information relevant to Education for Sustainability.
It definitely ticked the boxes. A great topic. We enjoyed all that was on offer.
Listening to someone who was there reinforced how close we are to Antarctica and viewing the videos diaries really focused the students into the whole experience. The readings and activities made students manage their time appropriately.
Provided real meaning and connections to topical subjects like global warming. There was a high level of interest about Antarctica from the students.
We integrated the learning across all curriculum areas, which was easily done. All my students enjoy learning in this way and the background reading was perfect for my Year 4 class.
The trips like Antarctica are fantastic. It enables all children no matter what ethnicity or socioeconomic group to explore the world. My teaching practice has been transformed as LEARNZ allows me to present learning with a digital approach, using multiple computers and devices and guiding students in combination with Google Classroom.
It was great to have people there in real time - it connected the students to the context. It was fantastic where they could type questions to the experts even though they didn't have a speaking role.
Linked well to our inquiry this term on Ecosystems and Science.
I run the GATE programme and we do Future Problem Solving so the ecological sustainability was particularly relevant. A great teaching tool which is motivating for students.