This paper presents exemplification of the ways in which teachers can garner the interest piqued by the recent detection of gravitational waves. The intention was to develop a teaching module based around this exciting new branch of astronomy and to use this as an opportunity to bring cutting-edge science into the classroom, whilst allowing students to explore future potential exciting careers in physics, astronomy and engineering. Our approach, based on constructivist philosophy, has been tested successfully with three separate classes of 13 year-old students. This paper is the first part of a three-paper series. It presents a detailed description of the practical set-ups employed and outlines a series of six lessons based on this theme. The second paper outlines a STEM enrichment project designed for an extra-curricular science club and the third paper assesses the impact of the project upon the students' attitude, self-efficacy and achievement. [For Parts II and III, see EJ1209407 and EJ1209409.]