You can contact LEARNZ, part of CORE Education, at:
Postal Address:
PO Box 13 678,
Christchurch 8141,
New Zealand
My students have a different view of the world we live in after this field trip. My students love the field trips.
Students became very curious with lots of wonderings about Antarctica and they decided that science is really cool. The field trip made for fun learning and helped us use the i-pads and laptops more effectively for independent research.
It was in line with our learning focus for this year of being a fully digital classroom. Online help was all good.
It motivated my top reading group. It was well organised, informative and something different to use as a reading tool/experience.
It has been one of the best units I have taught in my 16 years of teaching - I would recommend it to anyone. I do think that it has been particularly successful in my classroom because we signed up for the extras such as the ambassador and the audio conferencing - that's what really made it come alive for me and the children in my class.
My curriculum focus was supported fully by the LEARNZ Antarctica programme and two NIWA scientists visiting the class in person helped no end to endorse what we had learned. Some students were able to really drive their own learning, while having the two levels for reading enabled some of my less able readers to participate more fully.
Catered to the needs of all students. Tasks were easily differentiated for all curriculum levels. Great opportunity for students to make connections with the wider community.
Great for Nature of Science. Also enviroscience topics. The kids were really interested - we found all the science fascinating and it was delivered in a way that made it understandable for the class. Also just the glimpse into life in the Antarctic.
Excellent source of information for the students, aimed at their level, well presented and easy for the students to access and work with. Students found it extremely interesting and they learnt plenty of new things about Antarctica.
I thought LEARNZ did a great job of mixing up content that covered multiple curriculum areas in a logical and accessible way. Most of the time my Year 8-9 class were engaged and absorbed by what was happening. Well done.
I really enjoy the learnz trips. My class loved learning about preservation and discovery in Antarctica. It delved into the deeper questions.
My Year 3-4 students found the field trip extremely interesting, particularly as we had an ambassador join Shelley on the trip, too. We used the background pages for our reading programme and used the videos. There was a high degree of curiosity from the students, and their questions were answered at their level.
Children loved every part of the experience- thoroughly engaging. Really cool for the students to be able to participate with a group outside of their immediate context!
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.
Great resource with a variety of media. Very comprehensive, providing students with another layer of learning material connected to real world around them.
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.
Very appropriate for year 7/8 students. They absolutely loved being able to look at the resources, especially the photo/video content. It gave maximum opportunity to discuss what they were looking at and learning.
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 tied in nicely with our Science topic this term. Students were highly engaged throughout the field trip and are highly passionate about using LEARNZ in the classroom.
Fantastic - we were going to Waitomo on our field trip, and the timing and content could NOT have been better. Greatly improved audioconferences - the backchannel improved engagement, and the kids were highly interested in hearing their questions asked over the Internet, and the immediate responses.
Seeing people passionate about their interest is so encouraging for kids. We were focusing on fossils and limestone of North Otago, so it was useful comparing with Waitomo.
Excellent self paced real world learning. Great to have multi media resources students could relate to. Individual support and emails made the programme more accessible for our Special Needs Class.
We had a fabulous visit to New Plymouth Domestic airport as well as the virtual field trip to Christchurch International Airport. We had lots of fun and the virtual field trip provided a good range of activities.
Was incredibly engaging for the students. They learnt a lot more about digital citizenship as well as working together in a community group. They also found out a lot about what goes on when they arrive in a country and in regards to the process of an airport.
Best when you build an inquiry unit around the Field Trip. Being able to ask questions using Back Channel was particularly useful during audioconferences. Great to have access to experts that you would otherwise not have access to. The video footage and commentaries were a perfect length.