KU News Release

Where will you go first — the slime room or the laser room?

LAWRENCE — The 11th annual Carnival of Chemistry will be held this weekend on the University of Kansas campus.

This year’s theme is “Your Home ... It’s All Built on Chemistry.” The event is aimed at elementary-school children but is open to the public. There is no charge to attend.

The event begins at 1 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 29, at Malott Hall. Featured are the Frozen Flames University Demonstration Show, the slime room, the oobleck room, the laser room and the award-winning spectrapult. Activities end at 4 p.m.

In the slime room, kids will make two kinds of gooey polymers — one is clear and the other is cloudy and a bit more sticky. All participants can take their slime home with them. The oobleck room teaches about non-Newtonian fluids. This solid/liquid material flows like milk when the container is tipped over but when pressed, it becomes hard.

The spectrapult room demonstrates the electromagnetic spectrum in terms of light and energy. This room has participants launching small foamy balls at buckets that are set at energetically relative distances that could be related to different types of wavelengths (such as colored light, radiowaves, microwaves and X-rays).

Adults and kids will get to see various demonstrations relating to acid-base chemistry, creation and absorption of energy through chemical reactions and other chemical concepts during the frozen flames show, where Dr. Pyro and Dr. Cool battle to see who can impress the audience more. There are a few songs and a lot of high-powered demonstrations.

The event is sponsored by the KU chapter of the American Chemical Society, the Department of Chemistry, the Department of Physics and Astronomy and the KU ChemClub.

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