For scientists, the sandbox serves as an analog for faulting in Earth’s crust. Here, the large, slow processes within the crust can be scaled to the size of a table, and time scales are directly observable. This makes it a useful tool for demonstrating the role of inquiry in science. For this reason, the sandbox is also helpful for learning science through inquiry in middle and high school classrooms. This article describes a classroom version of the sandbox and how the authors use it as a physical model to promote inquiry in Earth science classes.