K-State's All-University Open House allowed students to showcase their activities and accomplishments to prospective students and members of the community.

On Saturday, members of Alpha Chi Sigma, a chemistry honor fraternity, demonstrated experiments to parents and children as part of the Open House activities.

Many of the experiments drew strong responses from the audience. Spectators said they were impressed by a demonstration that gave the appearance of blood on paper.

After dipping his hand in ammonia, Tony Kuckelman, junior in secondary education, smeared it across goldenrod paper. The chemical reaction of ammonia to the paper creates a thick red color resembling blood.

The Alpha Chi Sigma show has been part of the Open House program for many years. Kuckelman said students present the show many times a year for local schools and other programs in the community.

"Many of the things we do are done with acid-base indicators," he said. "It's adding an acid or a base and unbalancing the chemical equilibrium to get the desired colors."

All of the props and experiments come from chemistry demonstration books to ensure safety. Kuckleman said all of the demonstrations are controlled to prevent any mishaps, which could occur when setting off explosions.

The final demonstration literally shook the walls, when students detonated a balloon filled with oxygen and hydrogen gas.

On the other side of campus in Durland Hall, the K-State Robotic Competition Team exhibited its latest projects.

The group displayed a robot it will enter in the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers' annual competition, as well as many battle robots, which the students allowed spectators to operate.

Each year the IEEE has an annual competition in which participants design an autonomous robot to complete a set task. The robot takes the team about one year to complete, including one semester of designing and another for assembly.

The task this year for the IEEE competition was to design a robot which would identify and pick up three separate pop cans and deposit them into three different locations, depending on the color of the can.

According to the IEEE Web site, the robotics competition will take place April 20-22 at the University of Arkansas.

Battling robots were a big hit with many spectators. Josh Updyke, senior in mechanical engineering, said the battle robots appear more complicated than they actually are.

"We scrounge up a lot of parts from old RC cars we have taken apart," Updyke said. "They are a few basic components all connected."

The battle robots ranged in size and weight with few rules governing what teams can put on their robots.

"Our president has one with a chainsaw blade around it," Updyke said when discussing the different types of weapons. "Projectiles are the only things not allowed."