To develop conceptual awareness in physics, the main thing is to communicate
ideas. This means using verbal descriptions as well as algebric descriptions
of nature. When you start talking about concepts without using mathematics,
one starts to appreciate how subtle physics really is. I'd recommend
reading (not necessarily teaching from) "Conceptual Physics" by Hewitt, to
see how he presents physics ideas. Illustrate general principles with
lecture-demos and hands-on activities. Sometimes students need to touch it
and feel it before they can understand it. Mathematics is a good tool for
understanding physics, but it's not the only tool. Halliday & Resnik (the
older versions, anyway) had these great "Questions" at the ends of the
chapter. Usually they're skipped in favor of the "Problems," but the
Questions are there to help with conceptual understanding. Many other texts
contain similar questions.