1. What is the Paramount Resort?
Starter If you were ‘Head of Operations’ at Merlin Entertainments, and you were responsible for finding a suitable site for locating a new theme park, what criteria would you use to work out where to locate your park? Individually think of at least 5 criteria. Hint: Think about transport links, distance to towns/cities etc.
Notes: this PowerPoint and its contents have been adapted from materials provided by Garry Simmons, Wilmington Grammar School for Girls, Dartford, Kent.
Students devise criteria they would use to choose a location for a theme park.
They record these factors using a method from options presented.
They justify choosing these factors by writing a few sentences underneath.
Use
©Teaching Geography Theme park geography Simmons, Harris

2. London Paramount Resort? B
Bubble map
Connected bubble maps
Venn connections
Expanding connections
Now, record your 5+ criteria for siting a theme park. Choose an appropriate method from the above options to organise your thoughts effectively (or devise your own).
Justify why these criteria are useful to work out where to site a theme park by writing a few sentences underneath your diagram.
Extension
Can you relate your criteria link together by drawing lines between them and annotating these lines to explain the links?
Provide students with a range of alternatives to present their understanding.
Students choose the most appropriate based on the task/information. They can then articulate verbally/annotate the rationale.
Extension: relate factors together by making links and explaining them along connection lines.
High level success criteria:
justify criteria
link criteria together.
©Teaching Geography Theme park geography Simmons, Harris

3. Think – Pair – Share Did you think of these?
Does the proposed site have good transport links for ease of access?
Is the site big enough to have a large car park and other facilities alongside the theme park?
Is it near enough to major towns and cities to attract enough people?
©Teaching Geography Theme park geography Simmons, Harris

4. What is London Paramount?
A new theme park on the Swanscombe peninsula that is due to be built by 2021
Find out if any students have heard of Paramount and gather their views.
Then give extra details
Credits: screenshot taken from the London paramount website © PPS Group
Screen shot from the London Paramount website (
©Teaching Geography Theme park geography Simmons, Harris

5. London Paramount Resort location
Over 6 miles from the school (Wilmington Grammar School for Girls)
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6. Does the location fit your criteria?
Look back at your criteria for siting a theme park.
How many of your criteria do you think were considered when deciding where to site the Paramount Resort? Tick off the criteria that you think were considered.
Is the proposed location of Paramount a good one based on your criteria?
Students reflect on their learning.
©Teaching Geography Theme park geography Simmons, Harris

7. London Paramount Resort
LEFT
Enhance your understanding of the London Paramount Resort by researching key facts / figures. Try to include the following:
location
who is financing the project
how much it could cost to build
planned attractions / what else will be built on the site
anything else you think is relevant.
Watch this video first to gain some initial facts…
RIGHT
Produce a bullet point list of London Paramount facts / figures.
Create an infographic of London Paramount facts / figures.
watch until 1min 35 seconds
Introduce London Paramount Resort and its location.
Students tick off whether their criteria were used to decide where London Paramount Resort should be built.
Left/ right brain task
Students watch the first minute and a half of the clip for initial research and then independently research key facts/ figures
relating to the resort (e.g. location, who is financing the project, cost of build, planned attractions etc.).
Depending on their preferred learning style, students record this information either as a bullet point list (left brain)
or infographic (right brain). Provide students with an example of an infographic.
High level success criteria:
Research, analyse information and create a list or infographic
Hint: if you’re stuck, The Independent, Times, News Shopper and Kent News all have articles on the Paramount London Resort. There is even a Wikipedia page!
©Teaching Geography Theme park geography Simmons, Harris

8. Plenary – the answer is…
The answer is x. What is the question?
872 acres (3.5 km2)
Swanscombe peninsula
Kuwaiti family
Paramount
Disneyland Paris
London Paramount Resort
£2 billion
2021 or 2022
If this is the answer, what was the question?
Display answers one by one and ask students to say what the question would have been to generate that answer.
Ideal answers:
What is the size of the site?
Where is the resort going to be located?
Who is financing the resort?
Which film studio’s films are the attractions going to be based around?
What theme park is the resort set to rival?
What is the name of the proposed theme park?
How much will it cost to build?
What year is the park expected to open?
©Teaching Geography Theme park geography Simmons, Harris

9. Homework
By next lesson, you must have looked at the Florida vs Europe ArcGIS map of annual visitor numbers to theme parks around the world. Paramount is expected to have 15 million visitors a year and should rival Disneyland Paris. How do Paramount’s projected visitor numbers compare to Disneyland Paris and the amount of visitors other theme parks receive? Write a short paragraph explaining your findings after analysing the map.
In preparation for next lesson’s starter, students to have looked at ArcGIS webmap of visitors to theme parks around the world. (
As London Paramount is projected to receive 15 million visitors a year and is due to rival Disneyland Paris, analyse and compare some of the visitor numbers. Write a paragraph explaining your findings.
Other useful links:
Global attractions attendance report,
©Teaching Geography Theme park geography Simmons, Harris