I recently had my first physics class as a college sophomore, calculus-based mechanics. It was very fun and useful, as a computer programmer. This was my first lab class since high school and I was certainly inspired by each of the ~3 hour labs. The most fun was using a spring cannon to shoot a rubber ball through a ring, using kinematics equations my group of 3 was able to launch the ball precisely through the ring on the first attempt (we were scored by number of attempts).
We spent a total of about 30 hours on 10 labs throughout the semester. I found these to be a good length for keeping our attention and teaching each concept. It was nice to have access to a fairly new lab with laptops which we used to record and analyze sensor data. This all takes place in a very affordable California community college.
I know I haven't answered the question yet, just providing info on my experience for whatever it's worth.
Other interesting labs were: landing a ball in a small cup after rolling off a slope on top of a table. using a car with a fan attached to measure acceleration and velocity. colliding cars of different masses to measure impulse. calculating mass by measuring the velocity of a car being pulled by a mass on a string which was pulled down by gravity.
This class covered only mechanics. I imagine that labs in the fields of electromagnetism, waves and optics must be exciting in different ways. This first physics class left me wanting more, but those will have to wait, as they aren't required in my computer game design major.
One experiment could involve some rockets and landing a delicate payload safely. It has obvious applications. Other useful applications of physics should be sources of inspiration. A student should feel inspired by doing something useful with physics, something that they would use as a professional physicist, something to form the basis for novel applications of physics.
Something involving optics like capturing images of comets using a handmade telescope could be fun.
With the green energy revolution upon us, there could be some home made wind, tidal, and solar energy capture and storage systems to build.