Lessons with Marie

Making huge progress since we started working together in October 2025.

This student is preparing for his iGCSE Combined Scinece Exams and absolutely nailing Atomic Structure. We use this practical element for him visualise the concepts of bonding and structure.

He completed 5 questions today 😎

The candle making is going viral!

On the 7th of June I will be attending for their PaceFest Event. On the day I will have lots of STEM activities for adults and children to try out! There will be giveaways, science demonstrations, and maybe even some science explosions!

For purchase:
"Mystery Science" Bags
Make your own.....DIY kits

Make sure you come and say hello. We will be wearing our Lessons with Marie merch!

Which mini DIY bags would you buy?

I spend Thursday mornings at and .

It is such beautiful space. So welcoming and adapted for the service users.

Today we worked on shapes, colors, drawing, putting shapes together, exploring the beautiful gardens.

Busy week!

My new uniform arrived, absolutely love it and thank you to Will

We delved into how to the science of making something glow in the dark and the chemicals needed to do so. We realised that Minecraft uses this technique too, cool hey.

I have a new obsession with glitter so it went into everything this week including my candles during my downtime ✨️

Wishing the best of luck to everyone starting their exams tomorrow from

Today was a very fun "the science behind slime" activity!

1. Find a slime recipe

2. Choose the most suitable science equipment

3. Choose the ingredients. We chose :
Water based, clear PVA glue
Contact lens solution containing boric acid
Sodium bicarbonate (NaHCO3)
Red food coloring

4. Weigh each ingredient before we start the experiment

5. Add the glue (polymer) to the container

6. Add the NaHCO3 (activator booster, pH adjuster)

7. SLOWLY add the lens solution (actual activator)

8. Knead until not sticky!

IGCSE Student :

Today we worked separation techniques:

1. Add lemon juice + sodium bicarbonate (learning about solid in excess)
2. Filter the mixture (filtration technique)
3. The solution was concentrated
4. We heated the filtrate on the gas stove to observe evaporation (another separation technique) and the release of carbon dioxide (fizzing)
5. We let it cool and observed the end result under the microscope 🔬
6. Next week : look at the balancing equation of lemon juice + sodium bicarbonate 👨‍🔬

Today we turned the kitchen into a lab and looked at what’s REALLY happening when we bake and freeze food 👇

🧁 Mug cake chemistry
Baking powder produces carbon dioxide gas
Gas forms bubbles → that’s why the cake rises
Heat makes the mixture set (protein denaturation)
Liquid batter → solid cake

🍦 Ice cream chemistry
Salt lowers the freezing point of ice
This makes it colder than 0°C
Heat leaves the mixture → it freezes
Liquid → solid ice cream

Vid 1: continuing from last week, my student showed me his homework. He dropped household items into his lava lamp and watched them float.

Pic 1: Today's lesson then focused on making food coloring from household items.

Pic 2: Red = beetroot, yellow = turmeric, brown = coffee, green = matcha powder. We then mimicked a chromatography experiment to see the colors running.

Online lesson today:
We explored the density of household items: honey, washing up liquid, water, oil. There were lots of scientific conversations around this topic: why is honey more dense, how is it affected by washing up liquid, why is washing liquid helpful for everyday washing.

Pic 1: my setup ready for density practical

Vid 1: I was doing the practical alongside the student online, we had a lot of fun observing all the colors and interactions of the liquids

Pic 2: the student showed his lava lamp under his phone torch, and was so excited to keep it in his room ☺️