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It is definitely easier for a teacher to verbally dispense material, but the kids tune out and the material passes through their heads and doesn't remain.  In order to have the students make the material their own we have to "engage" them somehow.  We have to provide an activity or draw them into something.  Discrepant events help, but research has shown that they aren't sufficient in themselves. 

A speaker I saw here at Bryn Mawr not too long ago provided data that even Harvard students manage to take away from a good demonstration a lot of misconceptions.  So, to engage the student we have not only to activate interest, but also we have to engage thinking before the demo or experiment.

I've also held that we only really learn something when we have to make use of it.  So, to get students to learn we can have them teach the material or we can have them do something that requires the use of the knowledge that we want them to learn.  Finding such activities that are doable in the classroom or even in the lab setting is the challenge I have yet to overcome.