Shadowing Practice: Invisible ink science experiment - Learn English Speaking with Video
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Has your kid ever wanted to be a spy or maybe write secret coded notes to their siblings or their friends?
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Well, today I have an experiment for exactly that called secret friendship notes.
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Hi everyone, I'm Emily Calandrelli, MIT engineer and host of Emily's Wonder Lab.
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And on my channel, we learn about all things space and science.
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So grab some turmeric because we are about to go on a mission.
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Keep exploring.
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And this sounds like.
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Skate carrier.
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And keep exploring.
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Today for our secret friendship notes, we are going to draw a secret message with a baking soda solution, set it aside to dry,
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and then once it's dry, we are going to reveal it with a turmeric solution.
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Okay?
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So for our baking soda solution, what you need is one cup of water plus one tablespoon of baking soda.
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To draw your message, you'll want a few paintbrushes, and then later for your turmeric solution,
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you want one half cup water with one teaspoon of turmeric.
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And parents and adults, if you've worked with turmeric before, you know that it stains everything.
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Fingers and counters and bowls and basically anything it touches.
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So please exercise caution here.
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It is why I have my tinfoil on the counter because I'm trying to save this counter from the turmeric.
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So just be careful here.
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So first, we are going to make our baking soda solution.
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This is going to be our paint that we paint the secret message
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that you're not going to be able to see after it dries.
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So let's go ahead and do one cup of water.
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Right in a bowl.
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And now, let's add one tablespoon of baking soda.
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Just like this.
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And then go ahead and mix it up.
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You'll notice that the baking soda won't completely dissolve in the water, and that's okay.
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If you have a little bit of baking soda on the bottom, that's all right.
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We're just trying to create as much of a baking soda solution as we can
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because it's the baking soda that is the very key ingredient to our secret message here.
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Once you've mixed that up about as good as you can, we're going to take our paintbrush and use this
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and our baking soda solution to write our secret message on a piece of computer paper.
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So I'm going to take one sheet of computer paper here,
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set this aside and write my message here trying to get as much baking soda on your paintbrush as you can.
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Tap it off.
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You don't want it to be too wet.
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Okay, now that I've written my secret message, I'm going to set it aside to dry.
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It'll take between 10 minutes to an hour, really depending on how much water you use on your paper.
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But if you want this message to be completely secret,
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You want it to be completely dry because once it's completely dry because the baking soda is white
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It's so hard to see this is the secret part of these secret friendship notes
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So try to let it completely dry before you move on to the next step
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Once your secret friendship note is dry
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You can give it to a friend with the magic reveal paint and the magic reveal paint is our turmeric solution
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So let's go ahead and make that we're going to do one half cup water there plus plus one teaspoon turmeric.
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I'm using my one half teaspoon here because it fits in the turmeric because I'm just trying to avoid spills here.
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One half teaspoon plus, plus one half teaspoon equals one teaspoon.
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I'm gonna go ahead and mix this up.
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Again, it'll be a little clumpy.
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This is because turmeric is not soluble in water.
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It's soluble in alcohol, but we're just gonna do our best here.
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We just wanna suspend the turmeric in the water as best we can.
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Now here's the fun part.
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So we're going to take our turmeric solution
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and with a big paintbrush you're going to tell your friend
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that to reveal the secret message they just need to paint the paper with the magic reveal paint.
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You just want to go ahead and paint the entire thing.
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I'm going to take my secret message here and I'm just going to paint on top of it.
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Because look at this.
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It's very hard to see what this says.
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Right?
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What is my secret note saying?
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I don't know.
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Let's reveal it.
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Here we go.
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Look at that.
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Look at the turmeric reacting with our baking soda here.
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Do you see what's happening?
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Look at this.
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Everywhere that our turmeric is touching the paper, it's yellow, kind of what you would expect, like the color of turmeric.
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But when it touches the part where we had baking soda, do you see the color it turned?
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It turns red.
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Why does that happen?
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Well, it's because turmeric is something known as a natural pH indicator.
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which means it changes colors when it's in the presence of an acid and a base.
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What is baking soda?
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Well, it's sodium bicarbonate or a base.
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And so when turmeric interacts with baking soda, it turns red.
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It goes from yellow to red to indicate that it is in the presence of a base.
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Here's a trick to make your secret note even more secretive use cardstock
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because cardstock doesn't absorb the water as much so you don't have those obvious ripples in the paper.
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It takes a little longer for the water to dry but once it does it's even harder to see your message.
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So let's go ahead and reveal this one.
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Get my turmeric secret reveal paint on my paintbrush.
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Watch with each brush stroke I'm revealing a part of my secret message.
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You see what it says here?
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It says, Stay curious and keep exploring.
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You send your friend this message, but they have no idea what it says.
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You tell them to reveal it with your magic turmeric paint.
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Let's see.
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You see what it says?
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Meat in the treehouse.
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Home.
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And the best part is that your secret friendship note smells amazing.
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Very spicy.
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Smells great.
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Thank you for making secret friendship notes with me.
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If you like this one, be sure to check out my bestselling
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Stay Curious and Keep Exploring book series for 99 more science experiments.
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I'm Emily Calandrelli.
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Subscribe for all things science and space.
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And remember, stay curious and keep exploring.
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I'll see you next time.
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Emily's Science Lab
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This speaking lesson is built on the video “Invisible ink science experiment”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: secret, turmeric, baking, soda, message. This video has 106 sentences and 1095 words to shadow. The speech runs for 7:15. The speaker talks at a natural 151 words per minute, close to everyday conversation. 83% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English; the rest is worth studying before you start.
Key vocabulary in this video
15 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| soda noun | /ˈsoʊdə/ | Sodium bicarbonate. |
| bake verb | /beɪk/ | To cook (something) in an oven (for someone). |
| reveal verb | /ɹɪˈviːl/ | To uncover; to show and display that which was hidden. |
| friendship noun | /ˈfɹɛn(d)ʃɪp/ | The condition of being friends. |
| explore verb | /ɪkˈsploɹ/ | To examine or investigate something systematically. |
| curious adjective | /ˈkjʊɹ.i.əs/ | Tending to ask questions, or to want to explore or investigate; inquisitive; (with a negative connotation) nosy, prying. |
| experiment noun | /ɪkˈspɛɹ.ə.mənt/ | A test under controlled conditions made to either demonstrate a known truth, examine the validity of a hypothesis, or determine the efficacy or likelihood of… |
| finger noun | /ˈfɪŋɡɚ/ | A slender jointed extremity of the human hand, (often) exclusive of the thumb, and the corresponding part, irrespective of including a thumb, in many other… |
| trick noun | /ˈtɹɪk/ | Something designed to fool, dupe, outsmart, mislead or swindle. |
| acid noun | /ˈæsɪd/ | A sour substance. |
| sheet noun | /ʃit/ | A thin bed cloth used as a covering for a mattress or as a layer over the sleeper. |
| indicate verb | /ˈɪndɪˌkeɪt/ | To point out; to discover; to direct to a knowledge of; to show; to make known. |
| carrier noun | /ˈkæɹi.ɚ/ | A person or object that carries someone or something else. |
| brush noun | /bɹʌʃ/ | An implement consisting of multiple more or less flexible bristles or other filaments attached to a handle, used for any of various purposes including… |
| depend verb | /dɪˈpɛnd/ | To be contingent or conditioned; to have something as a necessary condition |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| go ahead verb | /ˌɡoʊ əˈhɛd/ | To proceed with; to begin. |
| check out verb | To record the departure or withdrawal of someone or something (such as guests, employees, books, etc.). |
Sentences worth repeating
Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:
- You don't want it to be too wet.
- What is my secret note saying?
- Do you see what's happening?
- You see what it says here?
- You see what it says?
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | you've worked · I've written |
| Verb + -ing enjoy, keep, stop… + -ing — verbs that are followed by the -ing form | Keep exploring |
| Superlatives the -est / the most … — the top or bottom of a group | our best · the best |
| Future with “going to” be going to + verb — a plan or something you can see coming | are going to draw · are going to reveal · are going to make |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 34 contractions and reduced forms, such as I'm, we're, don't. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: friendship /ˈfɹɛn(d)ʃɪp/, sheet /ʃit/, brush /bɹʌʃ/, caution /ˈkɔːʃ(ə)n/, paintbrush /ˈpeɪntˌbɹʌʃ/
- Long words — get the stress right: experiment /ɪkˈspɛɹ.ə.mənt/, indicator /ˈɪn.dɪˌkeɪ.tə(ɹ)/, ingredient /ɪnˈɡɹiːdi.ənt/, bicarbonate /baɪˈkɑɹ.bə.neɪt/
How to practise with this video
- Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
- Start at 0.75× speed, shadow it sentence by sentence, then go back to normal speed once it feels easy.
- Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like soda, bake, reveal.
What is the Shadowing Technique?
Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.