A naturalist is a scientist who is interested in the natural world, the plants, animals, and minerals.
Good naturalists are very skilled observers of the world, noting shapes, colors and textures of things 
in additon to many other facts. The first step in identifying something is seeing it and recording the details accurately.
Artists have to be skilled observers as well. An artist also carefully notes shapes, colors and textures. so they can reproduce it accurately. Sometimes an artist does not want to realistically reproduce the look of a thing....they want to change it to reflect their own style or view of the world. But even then they must have first seen and understood what it really looks like so they can interpret it!
An interesting fact is that an artist has two kinds of textures to think about, while naturalists are concerned with only one usually. An artist creating a drawing studies the real texture of something so an implied (fake) texture can be drawn!
The fifth graders had a wonderful opportunity to refine their observation skills on a glorious day in September when Barbara Clark, of the Nature Center, and Emma Craib, the art teacher, taught together in the Schoolyard Habitat. The students carried clipboards to sketch on while being guided through observation skill situations by the teachers.
Mrs. Clark showed us the Lady's Thumb plant...
...and told us all about not eating things growing in the wild unless an expert 
OKed it!!! Some stuff looks like blueberries but it can kill you!!!!
(That's Mr. Axelson looking on; he wants to learn all he can about the Habitat.)
The art room is equipped with microscopes that we brought out for closer looks at things. Mrs. Clark reminded us all of how to keep tiny specimens from falling into the light well.