Color, Temperature and Heat: Exploring University Students Mental Thoughts

Color, temperature and heat are among the concepts in science that are interconnected. These concepts are introduced to learners even before they enter the basic education. On the other hand, in school, it is formally introduced to them not only in science but also in the humanities. The foregoing study attempted to explore the mental thoughts of university students on color, temperature and heat using everyday circumstances that involved the said concepts. The situations in question form were administered to 50 3 year Bachelor of Secondary Education majoring Physical Science and 3 year Bachelor in Elementary Education majoring Content. Data gathered and collected were subjected to simple Collaizi method of data analysis to which themes and patterns were sought from the responses. Results were presented using percentages and simple frequency. The study revealed that university students possess a gap in their understanding of the above-mentioned concepts as greater majority of them possesses contradicting and inconsistent explanations. This implies that science curriculum both in the basic education and higher education needs revisiting. Likewise, an effective teaching sequence related to these concepts may be developed and used to improve students’ conceptions.


Rationale
Objects colors are reflected light rays that reach human eyes. The colors that we see are just a small part of the electromagnetic spectrum known a visible light. It includes red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet. This sequence results to decreasing wavelength and increasing frequency. Red having lesser frequency than violet means that red posses lesser amount of energy than violet, therefore, having lower temperature than violet. On the other hand, colors that appear cool such as blue reflects wavelengths with higher frequencies while colors that appear warm reflects wavelengths with lower frequencies.
Concepts on color, temperature and heat are introduced in the university in Physical Science, Mechanics, Physics in Health Sciences, College Physics and Physics depending on the course requirement of the different degree. In the daily teaching practice of physics in the past years, the researcher noticed the inconsistent and contradicting explanations of students when given situations that involved concepts on color, temperature and heat, hence this study.

Theoretical Framework
The foregoing study is anchored on the conceptual change principle which is within the framework of constructivist theory of teaching and learning. Bruner, in his works with constructivism, he proposed that learning is an active process in which students, through their everyday social interaction, they construct and build new ideas based on their current knowledge. The works of Kearney [1], emphasized that learners build their own framework of ideas by fitting their new sensory experiences with their preexisting mental structures, instead of just acquiring them. Constructivism recognizes the role and effect of learners' preconceptions or prior knowledge in teaching and learning, hence the need to identify them through diagnostic test or pretest.
In addition, Sutherland [2] in her works on conceptual change principle, she posed that to understand science, learning must be viewed as a process of conceptual change. As such, it is important to know the preconceptions and prior knowledge of the students to be able to develop and implement a more effective strategy in teaching. This will allow the teacher to confirm the correct prior knowledge, build up limited knowledge and correct alternative conceptions.

Literature Review
There had been a number of similar and related studies that were found in literature. These studies can be clustered into conceptual assessment [3,4], conceptual assessment and development of intervention [5,6] and development of conceptual assessment [7,8,9].. Along conceptual assessment and evaluation, Saudt & Forman [4] revealed that young children have already definite ideas about temperature and heat even before they get formal instruction of these concepts in school. Moreover, they found that these preconceptions were often inconsistent to the scientific views. In addition, preconceptions and misconceptions were determined among different races as indicated by the work of Tanahoung, et al [10] when they surveyed Thai and Australian introductory physics students' understanding on heat and temperature. Similar studies were also conducted across different age groups. Chu et al [3] found that years of schooling have improved the conceptual understanding of thermal concepts among students however; they found that 25% -55% of these students, depending on the age group, have trouble in applying thermal concepts to everyday context. In addition, the works of Borroguero et al [11] along color, Alwan [12], Prince, Vigeant and Nottis [13] Pathare and Pradhan [14] along heat and temperature and Potvin, Desmeules and Sy [15] along fire identified a number of misconceptions.
Most of these studies were focused on the context of heat and temperature while a few were focused on color perception. Hence, this study was designed to find out the consistencies of students understanding on color, heat and temperature.

Objectives
This study attempted to explore the mental thoughts of teachers and students along color, temperature and heat.
Specifically, it sought to find out the explanations of teachers and students on the following: 1. Which clothes to wear during hot seasons? (Black or white) 2. Which clothes to wear during cool seasons? (Black or white) 3. Which color is important in photosynthesis? 4. Which color of flame is the coolest? Hottest?

Methodology
The foregoing is a descriptive study that aimed to explore the mental thoughts of teachers and students along color, temperature and heat.
Four (4)  Likewise, the same questions were given to 150 public secondary school science teachers.
These questions were freely answered. Responses and explanations were tabulated; then, patterns and themes were sought and reported in this study.
Individual and group interviews were conducted as the need arises to verify and confirm responses and explanations.
Data analysis includes simple frequency counts and percentages from the themes identified using simple Collaizi method.

Results and Findings
Which clothes to wear? (Black or white) Results show that all of the respondents both the teachers and students claimed to wear white during hot seasons. In the case of the students, all claimed to wear black during cold seasons while majority (95%) of the teachers claimed to wear black during cold seasons. Most explanations revolved around the concept that white reflects heat while black absorbs heat. The following are excerpts from the written explanations and selected interviews from the respondents.
Students' responses. "During hot season, wearing white reflects heat." "An white kay nakakareflect hin heat amu nga kun mapaso maupay isul-ot. ( The scientific worldview suggests that the colors we perceive in our everyday life are the colors that are reflected by the objects around us. For example, an object appears red because all colors are absorbed by the object except red which is reflected, hence reaching the eyes of the observer, the object appearing then to be red. This is illustrated in Figure 1. Results show that majority of the respondents think that the colors they commonly see among plants (leaves, flowers, fruits) are those colors that are perceived as most useful. These include green and shades near to green such as yellow. This was confirmed during the selective individual interviews.
Meanwhile, the colors not often seen among plants such as indigo, violet and blue are those that were deemed by the respondents to be least useful. This is being confirmed by the individual interviews conducted.
Students' responses. "Because as we see in our environment, we see more green, orange and yellow." "There is no color blue that I have seen among plants and fruits." Teachers' responses "These colors (blue, indigo, violet) are not needed because they represent the cold and the cold is the absence of heat, without heat photosynthesis is not possible." Figure 2 shows how majority of the respondents perceive and understand the process of seeing and color formation in the case of light absorption in photosynthesis. Results revealed that majority (60%) of the students claimed that blue flame and shades near to blue such as white and bluish white are the coolest while (40%) claimed that red flame or shades near to red such as orange and yellow are the coolest flame.
On the other hand, majority of the teachers (88%) claimed that red flame or shades near to red such as yellow orange, orange and yellow to be cooler while (22%) claimed that blue flame or shades near to blue is cooler.
Scientifically, blue flames emit wavelengths with higher frequencies while red flames emit wavelengths with lower frequencies; hence, blue flames are hotter while red flames are cooler.

Implications
It is therefore implied that there exist a serious gap in the understanding of both teachers and students on the relationship of color, temperature and heat. The respondents failed to correctly trace the flow of energy (heat) from one system to another system and to properly apply it in their daily lives. Moreover, both respondents failed to comprehend the relationship of color and temperature. To them, brighter color such as yellow, red and orange is warmer while darker color such as blue green and violet is cooler. In addition, the respondents failed to comprehend and understand that the colors we see are the colors of the reflected light rays from the object.