I’m working on a Social Science question and need guidance to help me study.

professor’s instructions

Look up the definition of “observation”, please.

Observations are essentially behaviors or details the observer (person watching/listening/smelling/tasting/feeling) notes about the subject (person being watched, etc).

Observations would be related to the topic of an investigation.
If I am studying personal preparedness to shelter in place, then the observations might be the items I see that the subject has put together, their purchases over the year, watch them training, etc.

The observation “instrument” or “tool” would be a checklist suggesting the types of behaviors or things the principle investigator wants detailed. In a paramedic exam, the observation tool might be a skills check list or sequence sheet, and /or a sheet to record the desired observation or other witnessed behaviors or findings.

The instructions would be the Principle Investigator’s (you) instructions to the team of observers.
(the observation can be real time, or of recorded evidence).

Questions posed to the subject verbally, or in writing, are a survey; not an observation.
The emotional response they might have while answering can be considered observations.