Dear Chris:
I sympathize with you, happened to me too! You introduce something
new, very nice, appealing and illuminating, and students find it dumb,
boring and uninteresting. So, this is a factual observation, and
"experimental observation", and you have to adapt to it. What is
interesting to you (and me, and many others) is boring to your students.
So you have to make some changes, dress it up differently or so.
I would recommend a few things. Make it interactive and break it
up in single steps. "Today we will make cylinders roll down an inclined
plane. These cylinders have different weight. Which one will roll
down faster? Guess. -- Now let us do the experiment. --- Now let us
make the plane steeper. What will happen? Guess. --- Let's do the
experiment. What will happen if the plane is vertical? Guess. Is it
easy to perform the experiment with precision? What is the conclusion?"
After having done this and haaving obtained all kind of comments,
it is time to wrap things up, stressing the conclusions. Get comments
on the conclusions. Who did this first? Galileo. How did people think
about it before Galileo? Discuss.
That students are not interested in the falling motion, that they
want something with lasers? Sorry, this class is about Galileo.
Regards Emilio