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Testimonials

Harbours and Estuaries

It has provided us with a valuable resource about a local area and allowed children to ask local experts some questions. The information was easy for the children to understand and the videos were very informative.

Susan Sisam from Taneatua School

Appropriate as an introduction to harbour ecology. Made for a useful comparison to our own harbour. My Year 12 Science students were able to compare and contrast both ecological and social values of the harbours.

Keith Hartle from Ruawai College

The material was age appropriate (particularly liked the audio links, reading the material).  The participation levels at school and at home were a lot higher than usual because material was readily accessible and easy to read and understand. Audio conferences were excellent. Having the few visual photographs kept some of my less focussed kids engaged, as did the summary sheets that they had in front of them.  I was surprised at just how much they picked up.  It was great to be able to ask questions via the backchannel and get immediate responses - the kids loved that.

Vada Miers from Riverina School

The students were very motivated and learned many new things. They have changed their attitude to estuaries in our area. They particularly enjoyed the audioconferences and twitter - audioconferences are fantastic. I like the contact with scientists and other experts. Good links with careers education and Nature of Science.

Susan Feron from Collingwood Area School

It helped my students understand about estuaries as they had no knowledge of what they were before we read about them and participated in the audioconference. Two of my students with ASD are highly excited and showing the site to their whanau, which is great. The Te Reo content and Maori perspectives in the texts and from Guest experts is also excellent and much appreciated.

Sue Hodge from Elm Park School

It linked well with our focus on global issues and water use. It caters for a range of abilities and now that we have more devices allows students to work at their level. The live links created more reality and interest to begin with. Great stuff.

Francis Ganderton from Cashmere Primary School

Perfect for my class level. Children were engaged and gained environmental knowledge and inspiration to care for the local area. Useful resource with great planning and layout. Catered to a variety of learning styles. A valuable learning tool that engages the children in a different way. Easy to follow lessons with realistic and interesting follow up activities.

Philippus Meyer from Ohope Beach School

Stewart Island

Fitted fine with our topic, Taonga. Level 2. Suits the way I like children to learn, and the children gain so much from this sort of online learning. Caters for the range of different children/cultures/needs/learning styles. Able to view the material more than once.

Lynn Douglas from St Francis Xavier Catholic School Whangerei

Kauri

It was easy, engaging and grabbed the students attention. Covered all areas well as we were able to use it as a hook in, therefore allowing students to explore further in areas of interest as well as share with the wider school and community.

Rachel Oliver from Otahuhu Intermediate

Activities that went with the videos were fantastic.

Christopher Gore from Wellsford School

We are in a reasonably remote area and it is great that we can interact with other schools. The Web Quest was fantastic for a range of abilities. LEARNZ is wonderful for those students who learn in different ways e.g. listening (and they can refer back to recordings to check information). We are now interested in "adopting" a local reseve and planting some natives, including kauri.

Debra Sheehan from Pukenui School

Set at a great level for year 7 and 8 students. A lot of the planning has been organised for you. Great learning experience. Majority of students loved the topic and the quality of the work completed was outstanding.

Paul Hammond from Greytown School

Was extremely motivating for our learners! Very appropriate for our "Diversity" inquiry. Supported Science: Living World but also the Key Competences of "Thinking" and "Using Language, Symbols and Text". Watch the video where our Cambridge East School students share what they learned about kauri dieback at https://vimeo.com/272665119

Kathleen McIsaac from Cambridge East School

I used a lot of independent learning time using the background pages which promoted managing self. Also promotes community engagement, future focused thinking. It is well integrated across the curriculum and supports a range of learning types.

Kate Cvitanovich from Nelson Intermediate

Love the fieldtrips as a compliment or stand alone to my programme. Students engaged, differentiated material, connections to things Maori, I could work on my own or with a group.

Joelle Walker from Edgecumbe School

The kids get really engaged with what they are learning about. Because it is real the kids really respond to it. We can make links to what is happening around our area, also.

Ryan Fraser from Maheno School

I like that we can do the work live, or delay it to suit our needs, and either way not miss out on any of the content. It helped the children to further understand the need to value our natural environment and how easy it is for us to lose a taonga through lack of awareness or willingness to contribute. This topic also increased their cultural awareness.

Cathy Norris from Norris Home School

My students from this field trip are now very connected to kauri, that four weeks ago was just another native tree. Very powerful to have online learning with experts. Made a national taonga come alive and made kauri dieback real, relevant and contextual. Brings in elements of Nature of Science and the Social Science curriculum.

Janine Fryer from Pukekohe Intermediate

My 31 mixed-ability children were completely engaged in our study. It was such an authentic context for us, as we are a silver enviroschool and we have three kauri at our school that we are learning to protect. Was great for the children to see real science in action; they were very interested in the laboratory work.

Lynn Douglas from St Francis Xavier Catholic School Whangarei

Ties in so well with the guiding principles - Education for sustainability, Treaty of Waitangi etc. My Year 4 children were engaged and able to relate this field trip to our term concept of Turangawaewae. Content interesting and informative. Well presented as usual by Andrew with passion. Children with different learning styles are well catered for and my special needs children are also keen to engage in this type of online learning.

Lynn Douglas from St Francis Xavier Catholic School Whangerei

Fabulous e-learning experience! Very appropriate to our Inquiry theme of Survival. Very effectively presented. Children really enjoyed the videos and questions that were included which helped them focus on key ideas. Enthusiasm overflowed into homework! Love the idea of having background notes read so children of all levels can listen and learn. Really liked the integration of Te Reo. Can be used by a range of learning levels in a variety of ways.

Anthea Shattock from Otakiri School

There is so much in a LEARNZ field trip that it is possible to pick and choose what is most suitable for each class. There is so much motivating stuff to choose from for supporting reading, writing, inquiry, oral language, etc. I like the way that Te Reo is incorporated - this really supports Te Reo in my class.

Leone Baylis from Fairburn School

It is a highly motivating tool for learning. Children were highly engaged about kauri and continue to have discussions about their learning. Saves me as a teacher a lot of time as almost all of the planning and preparing is done for me. Great to be able to "call on the expert" from my classroom. Makes learning very accessible.

Karen Buchanan from Whakamarama School

This was a brilliant trip for my class. They gained a sense of guardianship responsibility for kauri. The videos were absolutely wonderful and students loved reading the diary entries also. The field trip enabled me to transport my students to a distant place, at no cost, in order to show them first hand some real NZ based learning. Students feel they know Andrew and Egbert and are keen to do more trips.

Brigitte Glasson from Westburn School

The virtual field trip worked well for my mixed ability y9 science class. It engaged the students and it was relevant to the curriculum. The class enjoyed the wide range of activities. One of my students is a boarder, who has iwi connections, with the far north and kauri forests - the kauri are taonga to her iwi. She was very engaged in this unit of work.

Phoebe van der Pol from Nelson College for Girls

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