Have you ever wanted to create your own theme park? Well, now you can! Students will think about and collaborate on the world’s best Theme Park.

• Theme Park will require an entrance area, Roller Coaster, and service facilities. All other aspects of the park are determined by the group.

• Students will collaborate together to design all aspects of their Adventure Theme Park.
Theme Parks are purposely designed to delight, entertain, and serve the many customers that visit the park. The entrance to the park is the most important as it is the first thing that customers see when they visit the park. They are usually a visual spectacle that serves as a promise of a great day that guests will have. Theme parks cater to visitors' needs, this includes appropriate space locations for food and convenience facilities. The main areas are also well paved and clean, often with places for visitors to sit and relax during their visit to the park. Popular rides, like the Roller Coaster, have well-thought-out waiting lines for visitors to use whilst waiting for their turn on the ride. How will visitors pay or get tickets for rides? Some parks have ticket booths near the entrance where you pay once and all rides are free. Other parks have well-placed booths for visitors to collect tickets for their desired rides. How will you add this feature to your theme park? The Roller Coaster will be the main attraction at your theme park. It will need to be something that is both exciting and had many things to look at whilst your visitors are riding. Your roller coaster will require ‘Powered Rails’ to make it operate automatically. It will also require a way of stopping when the ride is complete. How do red stone circuits work? How far will a single powered rail push a mine cart along a section of rail lines? Theme parks are generally more than one single attraction. You will need to consider what other attractions you can add to your theme park and how these will enhance the stay of your visitors.

• • Students will need to survey the landscape to determine the best location for their Theme Park.

• • Students will then need to determine the best location for the main entrance to the park, and how it will look to visitors.

• • Students will need to identify the best location for the main attraction, the roller coaster, and how it will be created. Considering the needs of the visitors by including a waiting line.

• • Roller Coasters will need to have powered rails and a method of stopping at the end of the ride. This will possibly require a side lesson on experimentation with red stone circuits and red stone blocks. This is necessary for a powered rail system to operate. It is recommenced that students experiment with one red stone power rail followed by many unpowered rails. See how far the powered rail pushes the mine cart. Try this on a flat surface and then on an inclined surface. Attempt ways to stop the mine cart at a set location. It is recommended to use ‘unpowered’ power rails (Power rails with no red stone circuitry attached) as a means for slowing or stopping powered mine carts. However, experimentation is key to this side lesson.

• • Roller Coasters will need to be exciting and visually appealing, with things to look at whilst on the ride.

• • Theme parks will need paths and services and facility locations for visitors. Things like toilets, food outlets, ticket booths, seating areas, gift shops, etc.

• • Other theme park attractions should be included but are the choice of the group. These additional attractions should not ‘outshine’ the main attraction of the roller coaster.

Additional External Activities

• • Students can create a poster to advertise their theme park.

• • Students can write a speech, that can be used to open the theme park. This should include the positive features of the park.

• • Ticketing information. Design a ticket for the theme park or tickets for the rides. Think about pricing.

• • FOOD, FOOD, FOOD!! Design a park menu for visitors. Think about where you will source the food from. How will it be cooked? How will the food be served? How many staff are required to work the food stand?

• • Staffing of the park. What sorts of people would be required to work the park? Security personnel, ticket booth operators, food vendors, park cleaners, information desk operators, mechanics, managers, etc. Now look at the park you have designed and determine the staffing requirements of your park. Create a list, table, or database of your park's requirements.

• • Design a park map for a brochure, that could be handed out when people arrive at the park. This should identify the park attractions and where visitors can find services and facilities.

• • Theme parks often revolve around a theme or idea (Disney has its cartoon characters). What would be a great theme/idea or concept you could base your park around? This could be based on the features of the game or it could be based on some artwork featuring around the park. Discuss this with your group.

• Think of the possibilities...
• Is the plan for the park, well thought out?
• Ask other students to visit and review the park, making suggestions for improvement.
• Students are able to explain their reasoning behind the decisions that were made for their theme park.
• Has the park got appropriate services and facilities and are they in appropriate locations?
• Were students able to successfully use and complete red stone circuits? You may like to challenge students to create a red stone circuit that can be activated or deactivated by a switch.
• Additional opportunities into other Key Learning Areas outside of the virtual world are encouraged to help create an immersive and engaging full unit of work.