Dark tourism examples: the 9/11 Memorial

Engage your key stage 3 students with one of the most compelling dark tourism examples: the 9/11 Memorial in New York City.

What's included

• PowerPoint lesson with learning objectives, starter activities on dark tourism, and investigation of the 9/11 Memorial's opportunities and challenges
• Worksheet with colour-coded categorisation activity evaluating statements about the memorial, covering visitor behaviour and economic impacts
• CLOCC framework for locating the memorial geographically, plus video clips on the September 11th attacks and commemoration

A free PDF version of the worksheet is available. Subscribe to access the full lesson, including the PowerPoint presentation and editable worksheet.

How to use this resource

Start by recapping dark tourism definitions before diving into the 9/11 Memorial as a case study. Students will watch video content to understand the historical context, then use Google Maps to locate the memorial site using geographical vocabulary. The main activity asks students to categorise statements from the worksheet into opportunities and challenges, encouraging critical thinking about complex issues like visitor behaviour, economic benefits, and respect for victims' families. Conclude with students writing their own evaluation using the provided sentence starters, helping them develop structured geographical arguments.

Looking for more like this?

This lesson works brilliantly as a standalone resource or as the second lesson following What is dark tourism?

Continue exploring dark tourism examples with Dark tourism: Pompeii, or let students apply their learning by having them create their own dark tourism brochure.