Virtual field trip focuses on design thinking behind transport system

Term 3 features a LEARNZ virtual field trip with scope to support student inquiry projects and other classroom learning.

The future of travel, the design of roads, how to make journeys safer and the speeds we drive at are all topics supported by a virtual field trip in Term 3.

The LEARNZ team of professional educators will take an in-depth look at the design thinking that underpins our transport system.

Virtual Field Trip: Share the road - design thinking and a safer transport system for everyone (external link)

When: starts 14 August

Teachers can enrol their classes now. Like all virtual field trips, Share the road will include live web conferences where students put questions to the experts. Also included are video interviews, student reading resources and interactive activities. Resources remain online for ongoing use.

Shelley Hersey, the LEARNZ field trip teacher, will be based in Waikato for Share the road.

Highlights:

Visiting Putaruru College where students made award-winning Future Transport video "Hayden's Big Adventure”. The students who will join Shelley as fellow inquiry leaders.

Getting up close to parts of the Waikato Expressway.

Talking to experts at the Waikato University’s Traffic and Road Safety Research Group. Their driving simulator is used to test new road safety features and driver behaviour.

Watch the Putaruru students’ video 

Other LEARNZ trip in May looks at the tech inside self-driving vehicles

In Term 2, the LEARNZ team will be take students on a virtual journey to learn about the cutting edge of location technology.

Virtual Field Trip:Land, Sky and Space - accurate satellite positioning takes off!(external link)

When: starts 22 May

During this trip, LEARNZ teacher Shelley Hersey will go for a ride in a self-driving vehicle and find out how it knows where it is going. She’ll also introduce students to the latest satellite system used by planes to navigate between our airports. Plus, the trip looks at how researchers use geographic information systems to better support our rural land.

This trip is supported by Land Information New Zealand, a government agency which looks for better ways to make geographic information accessible and usable. Combined with the Share the Road virtual field trip in Term 3, students have two opportunities in 2018 to learn how current and future technologies improve our transport system.