Marine Education through NZ-VR programme

NZVR – marine education programme

NZVR is an environmental education programme, delivered by BLAKE (Sir Peter Blake Trust) that shares New Zealand's most remote and vulnerable marine environments with students aged 10-15 years.  It uses a wide range of 360° videos and high quality virtual reality headsets to showcase the wonderful biodiversity that exists below the surface, as well as the damage that has occurred, and discusses how people can demonstrate kaitiakitanga (guardianship) of the ocean. The programme is now delivered in multiple centres in New Zealand, reaching approximately 40,000 students each year.

The programme covers a range of subjects including overfishing, pollution, and marine mammals. From 2024 a lesson on climate change will also be offered. All lessons are supported by in-depth teacher resources to ensure the learning can be extended beyond the lesson delivered by BLAKE.

James Gibson, Chief Executive at BLAKE, will deliver a presentation that outlines the origins of the programme, how it is delivered, and some of the things they have learned since its inception. He will give examples of what is taught and share some of the feedback provided by teachers.