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The 1wire 1 batteryb1 bulb lab is a great standard lab. It appears in many many programs (physics by inquiry, workshop physics, real time physics, modeling physics, hewitt, etc...) There is no trick. When done we make sure kids known the first time structure of a lamp, the need for a complete path in standard circuits, where there are conductors and insulators, that standard lamps do not have a preference for direction of flow, and more. Worth the time. Big payoff. Leads to many following concepts.
I'm going to come out of left field with this, if you know what I mean. I think there are at least two good reasons for starting with average velocity problems.
The first is that is all we really can experience in our lives. Instantaneous quantities are mathematical idealizations, and not directly in our experience. So if we want to begin concretely with our own experiences, there we are. Thinking it this why leads to a natural set of developmental questions when we know the velocity is indeed changing. Working with students to figure out how to do that gives a rationale for the development of kinematics.