The world of chemistry was viewed up close Sunday afternoon by dozens of youths who visited Kansas University’s Malott Hall.

Laser lights, frozen flames, spectrapults and mysterious substances such as “oobleck” seemed to attract the most attention at the ninth annual Carnival of Chemistry.

“It was really cool,” Daniel Pickins said of his hands-on experience at the carnival. The 10-year-old Lawrence boy was accompanied by his uncle, Oather Strawderman, a science teacher at Free State High School.

Daniel said that without a doubt his favorite exhibit at the carnival was the laser room, where he learned that white light actually contained many other colors as well.

The carnival came on the heels of National Chemistry Week, which ended Saturday.

Nine-year-old Lawrence twins Sam and Thomas Boatright, who were examining different colors of oobleck, weren’t afraid to get their hands dirty.

“It’s kind of gooey,” Sam Boatright said.

Oobleck is basically corn starch and water, said Abraham Yousef, a KU graduate student from Austin, Texas. “It’s more a plaything for kids than anything else,” Yousef said.

Another popular attraction was the spectrapult room, where participants used small catapults made out of plastic spoons, Popsicle sticks and rubber bands to launch small balls at baskets set at varying distances. The rubber balls represented electrons and the baskets represented microwaves, visible light rays, gamma rays and other types of rays.

A costumed group of students calling themselves members of the Frozen Flames University also performed a chemistry show. They described their show as a “chemically charged, interactive multimedia show.” One of the highlights of the show is, indeed, a “frozen flame” that turns green when dry ice is thrown on it.

The group also is taking its show on the road to other Lawrence area schools on request. More information is available at www.frozenflamesuniversity.com.

The carnival was enough to get some of the children to consider careers as chemists, including Lawrence residents August Murphy-Beach, 7, and Austin Johanning, 9.

Paul Hanson, associate chemistry professor and one of the organizers of the event, said he didn’t yet know the attendance of this year’s carnival, but noted that in past years the event had drawn at least 600 youths.