I conducted countless experiments in class throughout the course of my many years of teaching physics to motivate the students. However, I had never anticipated to find that nothing delighted the students as much as the simplest activity where I or the students made a light bulb light up by connecting a switch, wires and a battery.
My advice to physics teachers is to bring a battery, two cables, a switch and a small light bulb, and start your physics course with a brief introduction to physics, and find an opportunity to perform this simple activity with the class.