I want to follow up on Sam's post describing science lessons that were interesting and relevant to students.  Kudos to those teachers who plan and carry out those excellent lessons in their science classes!  Although teachers are trained to do those kinds of lessons, the "system" gets them down.  The required curriculum is extensive both in high school and college.  Then, there is the issue of standardized testing.  Teachers feel that the best way to get the material "covered" is to lecture rather than to do those in-depth lessons that engage students in learning, but take a lot of time.  What is happening is that content actually gets "covered" by the teacher rather than "uncovered" by the students.

Actually, what I am getting to is that all teachers need to make their course and each session relevant and interesting.  On the first day of class teachers should explain to students why the course is important--to their majors, to their lives currently.  Furthermore, each class session should begin with a rationale for why the topic and activities in which they are going to engage are important.  This in itself requires some planning.  How do you convince a captive audience that this stuff is worthwhile and how the activities will help them learn.  Then, there is the planning for interesitng activities.  If you lack good ideas, find out from others what they do.  Look ideas up on the web.  Go to books and other publications for ideas.  Let your students give you some ideas.  sometimes they have greate ideas that you might need to adjust just a bit.