Wizard of Dunes

By: Chris A & Wafiyyah S.

Summary

To portray the succession story of our trip to Indiana Dunes we are:We're using the story of the Wizard of Oz and adapting it in a way that helps portray our trip

The main character of our story is Gleichorothy

Our audience is a class of sixth graders

Introduction

Gleichorothy is a teacher at Lincoln Hall middle school. She got into a fight with another Bio teacher regarding succession. Each teacher disagreed with the others definition. The fight ended in the other teacher threatening Gleichorothy and vowing to prove her definition right. The next day, Lincolnwood experiences it's first tornado. Gleichorothy was on her way to school when the tornado struck and she was caught in it. She was then transported to the Wonderful Dunes of Oz

Scene 1

Gleichorothy is done teaching her class and gets out of the class and meets a fellow teacher. They both start talking about their day and what they taught their kids. Coincidentally, both of them brought up succession and when one told the other what she said, the other disagreed. They kept bickering and bickering until the teacher left Gleichorothy and vowed to prove that she's right

Scene 1 b

The next day Gleichorothy wakes up and gets ready to go to school. On her way everyday she passes a greenhouse. On her way she drops her bags and starts running...the Greenhouse wasn't there. There was a tornado! She ran as fast as she could, but she couldn't out run it. She's in the heart of the tornado and all of a sudden she sees the Green house coming her way. Then BAMMM she's knocked out

SCENE 2 Wet Margin

Gleichorothy wakes up and notices that she's at a beach and she sees a sign that says Welcome to the Dunes of Oz. Her heads pounding like crazy, almost as if something hit her. She looks to her side and sees the greenhouse. And she notices red ruby slippers and and some legs under the green house. She take the slippers and puts them on her. All of a sudden a cloud of CO2 forms and out of it a green bitter old witch comes outthe Wicked Wasp of the West. She told her that Gleichorothy killed her sister and that she will have her revenge. Right when Gleichorothy was in trouble the Good Beetle of the North appeared and told the witch to go away because she has to power here. Then a cloud of C02 appeared and she said I'll get you my pretty and your little Biological Degree too

Beginning

The Good Beetle of the north told her not to worry. Gliechorothy was worried because she wanted to go homeso she asked the good beetle (witch) how to do so. She told her that the only way to do so is to follow the Golden Sandy road, which starts at the beginning of the beach. She told her that that road will take her to the Wizard of the Dunes and he'll grant her a wish. However she must prove that she is worthy of attaining knowledge regarding how to return back home. The only way to prove that she's worthy is to make observation of the world around her and to present it to him---->and she was told that the best way to do it is to percolate as she goes down the sandy road. She said ok and she started her journey down the sandy road

Margin

She goes all the way down to the beach and starts observing the wet margin. She sees a lot of driftwood that washed up on the shore and sedimentary rocks (pebbles, blades of grass, etc). She also sees dead bugs. As she gets further away from the shore she sees a huge amount of sand around her. She bends down and looks at the driftwood and sees: small scavengers and insects and other things that help create organic matter. She then hears someone crying. I dark and bronzed man was on the beach and crying. She approaches him and asks what's wrong. He tells her that he's too dark and the woman he wants to marry is too white and she won't accept him unless he's white

Margin

He told her that he wants to go to the wizard so that the can grant his wish, but he doesn't know the way there. He asked if she did and she said yes. He said that if she takes him then he will help her percolate the area. She agreed. So they went off singing on the road

Scene 3 Beach

As they gets further away from the shore they see a huge amount of sand around them. They bend down and looks at the driftwood and see:Small scavengers and insects and other things that help create organic matter. They percolated and noticed that it took 18 seconds for the sand to absorb the water

Scene 4 Dune Builders

They approach the dune builders and observe two types of plants.(sand reed grass and marram grass). They came to the conclusion that these are pioneer plants. Pioneer plants are plants that go into an area with barely any organic matter and help make a suitable environment for other organisms. And then they percolated(Insert Data) It took 20.59 seconds for the water to be absorbed

Dunes Builder part 2

As they walk a huge gust of wind hits them and at the same time they notice that the wind pushed the sand and the builders back. It seems as though the wind pushes the builders back and and it adds on to the next level. Gleichorothy notices that she has a sunburn. There's a lot sun exposure, which means plants will be able to survive

Dune Builder PART 3

They also see other plants like: cottonwood and sandcherries.

Scene 4 Lee Side

They continue through the path and she sees little blue stems. They are in large clumps and they concludes that the stems hold the dunes once they are established. There's a good amount of sun exposure and this helps them go through photosynthesis and grow. It has less sun exposure and wind currents than the beach and dune builders. They percolate

Jack Pine Stage

She notices a bunch of plants in the following order :bearberries, jackpines, and junipers. They are having problems percolating in this area. They need helpcoincidentally they notice some guy without a shirt in his swim shorts. He told them that he's a college student and that he got to the dunes with a bunch of other college students (through the tornado). They ended up on the beach and decided that since they were on their way to Miami for spring break and the tornado stopped them, then they should just have a party on the beach. They eventually got fed up with partying and wanted to go home. So they tried finding a way back to their world, however everybody got lost and he doesn't know what to do. Gleichorothy and the tan man offered to take him with them, however he had to tell them about the are they were in and help them percolate. He agreed!

He already knew how to percolate in that area so he did it. He then went on to tell them that in this area there's a good amount of wind and sun exposure for the junipers (plants) that reside here. However it's harder for the small plants to receive any sun light because the juniper blocks it

Blowout Part 1

They continue on the path and eventually get to the blowout stage. They see sandy depressions in the sand dunes ecosystem. They inferred that the wind had something to do with this. The college student then remembered something he learned bio last semester. It was a bit hazy because he usually fell asleep during class. But he remembered that remembered that what they noticed is caused by the wind removing sediments

Blowout Part 2

From this info they formulate an explanation: a large gust of wind came removed the vegetation and formed a depression in the sand. It may also be caused by human disturbance. So Gleichorothy doens't forget what she has learned she took all the notes and then she added a bit of info

Blowout 3

She reminds herself what the definition of succession is:Primary succession: pioneers come in to an area where there is no organic matter and they build a suitable environment for other organisms

Secondary succession: a blowout is an example. It's when an area is disturbed and this causes there to be a disruption in vegetation. And then plants are going work again in order to bring it back to normal Will take less time to do when compared to primary

Blowout

They also see that there is barely any vegetation because there isn't that much sun exposure. They go on to percolate

Wooded Dunes

Further down the trail they see the following plants: hickory, oak,elm, sassafras, ash and any other trees. Gleichorothy looks up and observes that there isn't much sunlight coming through. The big trees are taking most of it. And there's barely any wind. She percolates, and measures the time to be 330.1 seconds.

Sandmine succession stage

Gleichorothy arrives at the next stage. She notices a flat landscape that stretches. She knew in advance that this area was leveled and hauled by sandminers Sandminers. She expected that since many years have passed since sand was removed from the site, it too has begun a process of succession. Small mounds of sand are building around everywhere; and marram grass, little bluestem grass, and sand cherry shrubs.

Sandmine succession stage

She percolates, and measures it to take 132.33 seconds. There's a lot of sun and a lot of wind. So she comes to the conclusion that since these two things are present and the area still doesn't really have a lot of plants that:it's all due to the sandminers.

Interdunal Pond Stage

She comes to this stage and she notices that there's a lot of wind and sun exposure. She didn't know how exactly it was created so she asked a scientist that was there. He said, It was created by the winds violent force, carving a channel through a low spot between the dune and lake, and scooping the sand out down to the water table.

They approach the end of the path and see the castle of the wizard. All of a sudden the witch appears with her flying enzymes and they try to take Gliechorothy's notes so that she won't have anything to present to the wizard. Just when they're about to take the notes a huge dragon appears, he threatens to breathe fire on them. The enzymes floated away because they didn't want to get denatured and the witch disregarded his warning. She ran after Gliethorothy and the rest.

They run back to the pond and she's about to cast a spell on them. Dorothy then pushes the witch into the pond---melting her. They go back to thank the dragon. He told them that that he couldn't really do anything because he doesn't know how to breathe fire. They told him to come with them so that the wizard could teach him how. He was happy and he went with them

As they were walking down the sandy road. While they were walking, a tornado occurs. Gleithorthy closes her eyes and when she open them she see children walking into school. She goes into her classroom and teacher her kids about succession, as well as proves herself right to the other teacher.

THE END