You know that balloons must be kept away from sharp objects. They also needed to be kept away from flames. A fire can weaken the rubber and cause it to break. However, in this experiment you will find out how you can hold a balloon directly in a flame without breaking the balloon.

    Materials needed:

● two round balloons not inflated(充气的)

● several matches

● water

    Inflate one of the balloons and tie it. Place 1/4 cup of water in the other balloon, and then inflate it and tie it. Light a match and hold it under the first balloon. Allow the flame to touch the balloon. What happens? The balloon breaks, perhaps even before the flame touches it. Light another match. Hold it directly under the water in the second balloon. Allow the flame to touch the balloon. What happens to this balloon? It doesn't break.

    Why does the balloon with no water break in the flame? The flame heats the rubber of both balloons. The rubber of the balloon without water becomes so hot that it becomes too weak to resist the pressure of the air inside the balloon. However, when the balloon with water in it is placed in the flame, the water takes in most of the heat from the flame. Then, the rubber of the balloon doesn't become very hot, it doesn't weaken, and the balloon doesn't break.

    Water is a particularly good absorber(吸收者) of heat. It takes a lot of heat to change the temperature of water. On the other hand, when water cools, it gives off a great deal of heat. That's why areas near oceans or other large bodies of water don't get as cold in winter as areas at the same latitude(纬度) further inland.

    Parents have widely different views on the problem of pocket money. Four new fathers were asked this question and this is how they answered.

    Ashish Khanna: Although many argue that pocket money helps develop children's sense of value, I don't agree. I wouldn't give my child any pocket money. First of all, I never got pocket money and I seem to have a good value for money. If my child ever needed something and I felt it was a reasonable（合理）request , I would buy it for him .

    Sharad Sanghi: No, I wouldn't give my child pocket money because I don't want to create the perception（观念） of “ her ” money and “ my ” money . Besides, if I refuse to buy her something that I think is bad for her, she may buy it with her pocket money on the sly. In this way, I would lose control over my child's requests. I feel it also encourages children to care more about money than anything else. I don't want my child to start judging(评判) other children by the amount of money or pocket money they have.

    Rakesh Shah: Yes, I would give my child pocket money. I feel that children should learn to spend money intelligently and not go overboard spending. They will learn what their limitations（限制）are and feel the difficulty when they have to pay for something that is over their own pockets .

    Rajiv Patel: Yes, I would give my child pocket money because it is important that she learns to manage money. I will give her a fixed amount every month and if she spends the money before the month is over, then she will learn a lesson and not spend money so freely.

    Vikram Desai: Yes, I would certainly give my child pocket money. But I would not give it to him on a weekly or monthly basis. He would have to earn it. If he helped me finish some of my jobs or helped his mother with housework, I would reward him. This helps him realize that “money does not grow on trees” and it requires hard work to earn money.

Visitor Guide to Birch Aquarium General Information

Thank you for respecting the health of our animals and the experience.

◆ Keep voices low in exhibit areas.

◆ No tapping on marine life displays.

◆ As a courtesy, please silence cell phones.

◆ Please use trash and recycling bins.

◆ Birch Aquarium is smoke-free facility.

Photography

    For the safety of our live animals, please do not use flash photography. Visitors may be photographed or videotaped by aquarium staff for professional use, or by the media covering aquarium news. Entry into the aquarium grants permission for use of these images.

Refreshments

    Splash Cafe offers a variety of gourmet, sustainable, and organic sandwiches, snacks, and beverages.

Drinks, food, and gum are not permitted inside the aquarium.

Restrooms ＆ Baby Care

Changing tables are located in both the men's and women's restrooms.

Re-entry

    Please keep your ticket or have hand stamped at the Visitor Service Office if you plan to exit and re-enter the same day , including visits to Splash Coffee Shop.

Visitors with Disabilities

    See the Visitor Information Center for assistance. All exhibits are wheelchair accessible. Wheelchairs are available at no charge.

Emergencies /First Aid/ Lost ＆ Found

Go to the Visitor Service Office or alert the nearest staff member.

Don't Miss!

    Watch a diver hand-feed the fishes—including three species of sharks—during our Kelp Tank Dive Show.

Learn about this unique and beautiful undersea world during a live, interactive presentation. After your visit, view the exhibit at home through our live, online Kelp Cam.

    I am a strong believer that if a child is raised with approval, he will learn to love himself and will be successful in his own way.

    Several weeks ago, I was doing homework with my son in the third grade and he kept standing up from his chair to go over the math lines. I kept asking him to sit down, telling him that he should concentrate better. He sat but seconds later, as if he didn't even notice he was doing it, he got up again. I was getting frustrated, but then it hit me. I started noticing his answers were much quicker and accurate when he stood up. Could he be more intent while standing up?

    This made me start questioning myself and what I had been raised to believe. I was raised to believe that a quiet, calm child was a sure way to success. This child would have the discipline to study hard, get good grades and become someone important in life.

    Now those same people perhaps come to realize that their kids are born with their own sets of DNA and personality traits, and all you can do is loving and accepting them. As parents, throughout their growing years and beyond that, we need to be our kids' best cheerleaders, guiding them and helping them find their way.

    I have stopped asking my son to sit down and concentrate. Obviously, he is concentrating just in his own way and not mine. We need to learn to accept our kids' ways of doing things. Some way may have worked for me but doesn't mean we need to carry it through generations. There is nothing sweeter than being individual and unique. It makes us free and happy and that's just the way I want my kids to live their own life.

    The clearing of my parents' home has made me think about the importance, even centrality of books to the house's life and soul. The house, and our lives in it, would not have been the same without books. The force of the statement comes home to me as I see what happens when shelves are emptied. The rooms suddenly look uncomfortably bare.

    I always rather took it for granted that books furnished a room. The only rooms in our house without books were the dining-room and the bathrooms. Otherwise there were books everywhere: in all the bedrooms, in the drawing-room and in the piano room which became my parents' comfortable winter study.

    I couldn't help feeling that books were rather like people: some more formal and boring, others more entertaining; some simply for show, others with unpromising outsides but rich interiors. They did more, in fact, than furnish a room; they were companions who could offer insights, good advice.

    Now the books are being contributed (not all, to be sure, but very many), and I fear for their future, almost as if they were refugees (难民). “Habent sua fata libelli”, goes as the old Latin saying, originally written by Terentianus; it meant that the fate and future of books were determined by the capability of the reader. But the meaning of the phrase has been misunderstood by time and is now associated with the physical fate of particular books, how they have passed from owner to owner. This is how Walter Benjamin read the saying when he wrote his essay “Unpacking My Library”, which analyses the extraordinarily close relationship between a collector and his or her books.

    When I deal with the books that many are going to charity shops, I hope they will find good homes, I can't help wondering if my generation is the last that will oversee such a process. Books are disappearing, as more and more are bought in electronic form and exist only as bytes of information on e-books or other devices. Does this matter? Could books become more spiritual, as they lose their physicality?

    What is a lifestyle and how is that different from a life? A lifestyle is about brand names and buying identity or fame. Lifestyle gives a false sense of peace and acceptability that comes from others recognizing what you've bought into (as well as bought). If your car, clothes, and home are expensive, you're sophisticated (世故的) and stylish. If you have the right kind of job or go to the right social gatherings, then you receive the insincere approval of others. This means that your self-esteem (自尊) is always at the mercy of others, with no appreciation of you as an individual.

    A life, on the other hand, is very different. A life is what you lead when you know what matters most to you. It is very simple and comes from being connected to what you know is important and being willing to put that first, no matter what others may think. When you create a life vs. a lifestyle, your self-esteem comes from what's inside you, not what others think about you.

    Lifestyle is expensive financially and personally, because it costs a great deal to keep up appearances and do what you think is socially acceptable. A life is not expensive. Rather than using personal or financial resources, a life generates energy and staying power. It's about liberating yourself from the mindless consumption that society expects. It is about making the choices that are in line with your values, instead of using up your bank account or energy for no heart-driven reason.

    How can you make the change? Understand the difference between a life and a lifestyle. Analyze your current lifestyle to see what is costing you in money, time, stress, and energy to maintain it. Let go and make room for what is really important to you, what supports you and brings you joy. Remember who you are from within, not what you own!