I have been recently having them do a lab during my lecture to establish the correct procedure, and them ask them to play with it after the lecture.

These are both great ideas! I'll share one I used as well...

I had a short amount of time (not enough for a full lab) but I wanted active learning and teamwork. I took a process and put each step on an individual sheet of paper, folded to hide what was written. I then gave each page to a different person and told them not to peek until I said go. I then used a stopwatch to time how long it took them to organize themselves until they were standing in a line holeding each step of the process for the class to see, in the correct order.

We did this a couple of times, and the competition definitely got their juices flowing!