Observation: Sounds in a Quiet Room

So often, when speak of observation skills, we focus only on sight and neglect the remaining 4 senses.  Put your students ears to work with this exercise. 

Students will sit quietly for 5 minutes, just listening and writing down the sounds they hear.  It's amazing how much noise there is, even when things are quiet!

Any students who make intentional noises will have their grade docked accordingly. 

This is also a great activity to do outside on a nice spring (or fall) day.

Sewer Bugs: Observation, Inference and Density

This demonstration is often used to catch students' attention.  You can use it as such, or turn it into an observation activity for your students.

In the classic set-up: 
Before your students arrive, you'll pour some Mountain Dew into a glass (another light colored soda would work as well, but there's just something about that neon yellow color of Mountain Dew... ) and add a handful of raisins.

The raisins should start traveling up and down in the soda.

When the students arrive, you show them your sewer bugs, making up a story about how you acquired them and so on.  At the end of the story, you drink the bugs (remember, you know it's just soda and raisins) - disgusting your students and forever imprinting yourself on their brains!

As a student activity: 
Provide your students with the supplies.  Let them set it up and observe carefully to see if they can determine how the "bugs" are traveling.

The explanation: 
Raisins have lots of nice bumps and creases to which the carbon dioxide bubbles (found in the soda) can adhere.  The carbon dioxide bubbles decrease the density of the raisin, allowing it to rise to the surface.  When the raisin reaches the surface of the soda, the bubbles pop.  The density of the raisin increases and it drops.  Carbon dioxide bubbles once again adhere to the raisin and the cycle continues.

Observation: The Sense of Touch

Observations can be made with any of our senses (though, we tend to avoid the sense of taste in the science lab). This activity gives students a chance to test their sense of touch.

Number a bunch of socks with a permanent marker. Place a household item (non-breakable) into each sock.



Students will use their sense of touch to identify the objects. Students can feel the objects through the sock or, if the socks are long enough, reach their hand into the sock to feel the object without looking at it.

You can have students record their findings in any number of ways:
1. A list of words describing the object.
2. A sketch of the object's shape.
3. A hypothesis as to what the object is.

I often have students make a data table that incorporates 2 or all 3 of these pieces
of data (along with the sock number).

I like to have enough socks so that there's one for each student. To keep things moving and in order, I'll call out when it's time to switch socks, at which time, all the socks will move to the next person.

After students have observed all socks, I'll ask for their hypotheses for each sock number. Then I'll reveal what was actually inside.

Observation: Find My...

I've seen many variations of this activity. The first time I did it, we used peanuts (in their shells). Most schools would probably prefer you avoid peanuts, which is easy enough to do. I've also done it with apples, pond stones (you can buy a bag of polished ones in a craft store), shells, etc. Regardless of what you use, the procedure is the same...



You're the proud parent of a newborn pond stone. Take your newborn and fill out a "birth certificate" - provide measurements and a detailed descriptions, as well as a birth picture.

Your stone is now 2 years old and interested in playing with the other stones in your neighborhood. Mix up all the toddler stones at your table and try to find yours.

Your stone is now 4 years old and headed to preschool. Gather all the stones from 3 neighborhoods (lab tables) together at a central preschool. Again, mix them up and try to find yours.

Time to head to kindergarten! Everyone in the class will bring their stone to the kindergarten. Additionally, some stones from another town are bussed in, so they will be added to the mix. Mix all the stones together and try to find yours, one last time.


Some questions to consider:
-When was it easiest to find your stone?
-When was it the hardest?
-How were you able to identify your stone?
(These questions work better for apples, shells, and peanuts):
-What is a variation?
-What were some variations you noticed in the stones?

*******************************
A variation on the activity:
After students have identified their stone within the groups, have them exchange descriptions with another student. Can that student find their stone? Can they kind the other student's stone?

A good lesson in providing thorough descriptions and complete information.