The Wizard of Oz and Science.

The Wizard of OZ and Science.
By: Heidi Wunschel
How much do you believe in transportation based on the weather?  Can you be transported by a tornado to a different world? These questions have always had me wondering if it was possible like in the Wizard of Oz.  I feel like I should offer you some background information about the movie in case you don’t know what it is about. It is a movie that was created in 1939 by Warner Brothers and it is still a popular movie till this day.  It is about a girl named Dorothy and her little dog. They live in tornado alley. A tornado was coming and she didn’t have time to take cover. The tornado swept her and her dog up and transported them to the Land of Oz. Here is a preview of the movie so that you might get a visualization of the land of oz:




Now there are several interesting things that I have noticed about this movie like how it goes from black and white to color, tornadoes causing a girl to end up in another world, and everyday things talking like a lion. I would like to try to answer the question about being transported by a tornado to a different world.  A tornado is a mobile, destructive vortex of violently rotating winds having the appearance of a funnel-shaped cloud and advancing beneath a large storm system.  Here is a short video of a tornado so that you can see how they operate and transport things that they pick up to different locations.









According to a website tornadoes can carry objects between 15-20 miles away from there original destination however the farthest on record is 150 miles away. Upon doing further research I was able to conclude that yes a tornado can pick a person up but not transport them a farther distance.    After watching this video you can clearly see that it would be impossible for a girl like Dorothy to be transported to an alternate land. The only way that she would be able to do this is if she landed somewhere and hit her head which resulted in her dreaming about the land of oz.
How do you feel about the plot line of the story and is it scientifically possible for lions and other items to talk to a person?  The plot line is full of wonder and amazement. Here is just a little synapsis of the plot line, Dorothy lives with her aunt and uncle in Kansas, a tornado picks up the house with Dorothy and her dog in it and transports them to the Land of Oz, once the house lands it kills one wicked witch, she meets a lion, tin man, and a scarecrow, they are all going to look for the Wonderful Wizard of Oz to ask for things like they were missing like a brain and a heart, Dorothy goes along in the hopes that the  Wonderful Wizard of Oz will transport her back home. There is more to the story but Dorothy does eventually make it back home. Now I felt that the plot line was fantastic in the 1939’s. For them to pull of this masterpiece was amazing back then. I feel that it is scientifically impossible for lions and other items to talk to people as much as we would like for that to happen. So in answering the questions above, I would not change the plot line and its not possible for lions and other items to talk to a human.  
Now the last question that I have been pondering since the very first time that I saw this movie is at what age should this movie be appropriate for.  I can’t really answer this question because everybody has a different viewpoint however it is rated for everyone. I know that my youngest child 9 gets scared from this movie and has nightmares so with that being said I would probably lean towards this being appropriate for ages 11 on up.  
My final thoughts about how I would teach this to my future students would be to ask the questions to the students to see what they thought.  I would use this as a pre-assessment first to see if they have heard/saw the movie and then to see if they thought it was possible for tornadoes to transport things to an alternate place. Here is a link to my pre-assessment tool that I will be using, https://quizizz.com/admin/quiz/5b23e6f205d5400019c417f7 If my students have not watched the movie I would ask for permission from their parents before we watched it in class.  I wanted them to get the full experience. As my final assessment I would ask that they write an essay or paper about what they have learned based on the science behind the movie.  
Here is a link to my podcast in case you would like to hear me talking about this blog: Listen to the newest episode of my podcast, Heidi Wunschel: The Wizard of Oz and Science https://anchor.fm/heidi-wunschel/episodes/The-Wizard-of-Oz-and-Science-e1ldce
References:
  1. First Image was from Google Photos online.
  2. Video of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz preview is from youtube, link: https://youtu.be/c_Ne5g5F-WY
  3. Video of Tornadoes is from youtube, link: https://youtu.be/bjb7QtMEBUg
  4. Tornado Definition, website: http://www.dictionary.com/browse/tornado
  5. Informational website about The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, website: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wonderful_Wizard_of_Oz
  6. The Facts (and Fiction) about Tornadoes, website: https://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/25/us/25questions.html
  7. Can a tornado lift a person up, website: https://www.quora.com/Can-a-tornado-lift-person-off-into-the-air

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