Active Experiment vs Passive Observation

There are only two ways in which humankind can produce knowledge: through passive observation or through active experiment. To what extent do you agree with this statement?

Knowledge appears to be such a broad topic that it can be mind-boggling to narrow it down to two categories.  Passive observation involves an observer that makes no impact on the subject or phenomenon of their experiment. In contrast, active experimentation constitutes an involved 'knower,' who manipulates variables in order to arrive at a specific conclusion. Although each type of producing knowledge can provoke different questions about supposed 'active observation' or 'passive experiment,' each type of activity inevitability falls under one of the two categories.

To explain this phenomenon, I can use 'going to school,' as an extended metaphor for learning and producing knowledge.  Activities such as listening to a lecture or watching others do an activity clearly fall under passive observation. Even if a student is involved in a group lab, they are either directly participating or watching someone else do something.  In a group situation, even if someone is reading directions to their group member as they carry out an experiment, it would be characterized as active experiment, because that individual is directly affecting the results of the experiment.  However, if a teacher was doing an experiment in front of the class, and a student yells out something, causing the teacher to get distracted and therefore mess up the experiment, that would be hard to tell.  The student, although passively observing for most of the experiment, would still be considered an active experimenter as they affected the results and became a variable in the outcome.

In my opinion, activities such as homework or doing a worksheet in class would be considered active experimentation, even though they are not the classic or expected form of 'experimenting,' For example, if a student works on a math worksheet, they are essentially experimenting if there answer is right, and testing their brains to see if they understand a certain concept.  Even in a group situation, the student could switch back between passive observation of their peers completing a problem, and active experiment of contributing to a solution.

The notion of a passive experiment is mostly false, as almost any situation would still fit under each category.  Even if you are watching an experiment being done, it is still observation because when you manipulate something, you are automatically becoming involved and thus active in it.  If you low-key observe how long your grass grows in the summer versus the winter as a form of experiment for science fair, the ways the knowledge was produced was still through passive observation. Similarly, active observation would mean that you would be watching something while also taking part in that activity, which is almost impossible.  Overall, almost any situation where humankind produced knowledge can be through passive observation or active experimentation.