Begin the experiment by telling your students about the six main process skills, but stress the importance of observation. Ask the students if they know the difference between seeing and observing. Stress the difference between the two. Seeing is passively looking at phenomena, while observing is actively looking at phenomena and paying attention to the details. Those details could lead a scientist to important findings that improve or help us better understand the way we live.
Gather five live specimens for the experiment that are small enough to fit in a container, such as ants, grasshoppers, worms, toads or flies. Place the specimens in containers with holes large enough to allow them to breathe. You will also need five towels large enough to cover the containers completely.
Place the containers with the five specimens near the front of the class, and ask your students to look at the specimens. After two minutes, place a towel over each container and ask the students to write down what they remembered about each specimen. When the students have finished writing, ask them to closely inspect the specimens and write down everything they observe, including all of the details that make up each specimen.
When your students have finished observing the specimens, have them compare what they saw in the first part of the experiment and what they observed in the second part of the experiment. Have a few students read their seeing and observation lists out loud, and ask them what conclusions they can draw about the differences between seeing and observing. Their data should show exactly what you outlined in the introduction to the experiment.