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

Resources that we used were excellent, thought provoking and have my whole class sold on taking care of kauri. Teaching kit very helpful, well thought out, age appropriate.
We live in the north and are surrounded by Kauri trees. Our students are now aware that kauri trees are under threat as they did not know this initially. I feel science is a very important part of the curriculum and want to encourage students to interact with the New Zealand environment. We are now going to visit the local bush and observe our trees.
Students were motivated by the field trip and made gains in reading, research, and critical thinking.
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.
Easy to access and structured well for independent work. Just the right level and interest.
Fitted in very well with our non-fiction reading strategies and gave information that we weren't aware of. Also topical with the news broadcast about Coromandel.
It is visual, relevant, easy to access, and makes good use of technology to be virtually there. Very relevant and topical in Northland.
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
We found it an effective way to learn. It focussed us on our work and was more interesting than just picking up a book. We would use LEARNZ again because we get to learn more about what's outside of our local community.
It illustrated clearly community engagement, ecological sustainability, participating and contributing. Students were interested. It also helped in the Nature of Science ... seeing how the community can work with the scientists on an issue.
Photos generated a lot of discussion.
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.
Engaging and relevant. My tamariki loved learning about the kauri. The field trip allowed them to engage with and utilise the learning we were doing in the classroom.
Related to our personal environment, local issues, and experiences at camp. Very relevant to developing a MLE and BYOD environment. Combined literacy, science, social science. Andrew (the LEARNZ Teacher) was friendly, engaging, and related well to students and experts.
The visual and aural activities of the virtual fieldtrips, real time and recorded, are an immediate way to bring the wider environment into the classroom. The field trips and their material are flexible enough to give opportunities for a variety of uses in the classroom.
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.
Contributes to learning objective for both Earth and Space Science L2 internal and external assessment. Helped as part of the inquiry process with student-led learning. Good opportunity for managing self.
Great content and contexts. A novel approach and a way to bring other voice into my classroom that has great authenticity. Fits well with the specific Learning Objectives for the Disaster unit taught in the Social Studies curriculum.
It was perfect. Another tool in a teacher's basket of learning activities. It put into a familiar context (we live in the Bay) the material we were learning about. Relevant visuals and they loved the ambassador, as did all our students even the big year 12 students!
... brought the curriculum to life. Opened the eyes of the class to all the interesting things going on around them.
Excellent resource that can be picked up by all students or just one who wants to delve into an area at a greater intensity. Self regulated, great background to an area of interest.
The field trip helped to make the content very relevant and allowed the students to feel like they were getting first hand experience.
Students gained through the Science strand - Nature of Science - How scientists work.
Helped make content relevant to my Year 10 students. Great for the visual learners!
Great field trip, extremely relevant to our local area and the geohazards we have here. Was informative for my students to learn about the hazards and safety neccessary in our area. Learnt key competencies and also how to be well prepared in case of an emergency. They (LEARNZ virtual field trips) are fantastic and interactive for all that participate not just the students; they are in the now so very relevant for what is happening in our world.