Day 03 - Research Biospheres

A biosphere is any life-sustaining environment whose only external inputs are energy-related. The Earth is often referred to as "Biosphere 1" because it is our primary biosphere, the original cradle of life. But if we build a terrarium properly and seal it up, we can create a micro-biosphere. For sustainability, it has to be limited to plant and microbial life due to its size - small systems cannot support consumers, only producers and detrivores.

So today you are going to research Biosphere 2, a project built in Arizona to collect information on what we would need to build sustaining colonies for human habitation elsewhere in the universe. Although on some levels that experiment was a failure, as I have pointed out many times in this class a first prototype is expected to fail. They learned a lot during the initial test run of Biosphere 2.

In Google Classroom, open the Biosphere EDP template I've provided for your use. Each team can share one to work on. You are tasked with designing a terrarium that can sustain detrivores (decomposers) and photovores (plants) in a sealed jar that is provided with sunlight every day but which must have the right ratios of matter inside the jar to provide for carbon, nitrogen, and water cycling sufficient for the life within. You'll design that terrarium tomorrow, but today you need to research biospheres in general. Put that information into the research section of your EDP template. Once you have recorded what things Biosphere 2 needed to have to sustain life, research what a small-scale terrarium needs to sustain itself. You should be taking notes on specific materials - soils, rocks, additives, etc. - so that when I provide you with materials you know what to add, how much of each to add, the order in which they should be added, and what materials should be left out of your design.