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Our classroom is outside today. Spread across the field are students digging in holes, carefully pulling up plants by their roots and placing them gently in jars, exclaiming at small discoveries and asking deep questions about life. Students will be challenged through two different projects with the purchase of these terrariums: How can you create a working model to show the interdependence of Earth's Spheres? Can you create an environment that can sustain the lives of at least two insects for up to three weeks, completely sealed? The purchase of 20 plastic terrariums will help my students complete two challenges in small groups (2-3 students each), to bring inquiry-based learning to life. In the past we've completed these projects using 2L soda bottles, but the reality is that they're too small to keep a community of insects alive. These terrariums would be used twice a year. In the fall students will be challenged to create a working model that shows the interrelationship of the atmosphere, biosphere, geosphere, and hydrosphere. In the spring they will re-build this model, but add on the challenge of showing how these spheres support life. Throughout the spring semester they will re-build their models as they learn more about food webs and matter cycles to show their understanding of earth's systems and how they make life on earth possible.