...Well, in that particular example, you're probably right. The problem with star-based navigation is it depends on a certain set of stars to do the heavy lifting. Considering there's no guarantee we'd get dropped anywhere with constellations we recognise, land-based navigation is more likely to help.
People are asking about what sounds interesting to them, and/or what they have a practical need for right now or in the near future. There are ways to make the basics sound like either or both of those things, but pretty much everyone in your target bracket went through school as a requirement, not a privilege. We're expected to sit there, absorb information, spit it back out for a test, and somehow divine the practical uses for it without ever actually being told what those practical uses are. Give a teenager a chance to learn something they're passionate about and they'll love it. Tell them they have to know something Because You Said So and they'll resent the lesson and the teacher both, and at that point it's probably better to know you don't know it than kind-of know it and screw something up.
no subject
People are asking about what sounds interesting to them, and/or what they have a practical need for right now or in the near future. There are ways to make the basics sound like either or both of those things, but pretty much everyone in your target bracket went through school as a requirement, not a privilege. We're expected to sit there, absorb information, spit it back out for a test, and somehow divine the practical uses for it without ever actually being told what those practical uses are. Give a teenager a chance to learn something they're passionate about and they'll love it. Tell them they have to know something Because You Said So and they'll resent the lesson and the teacher both, and at that point it's probably better to know you don't know it than kind-of know it and screw something up.