Scientists and educators think they know how to keep students studying biology in college rather than giving up in frustration after an especially difficult course or two. They know, for example, that students must explore scientific concepts rather than just memorizethem.

The problem is the recommendations a national group has made remain just recommendations. Now another group is working to take those ideas from theory to practice in universitiesnationwide.

That group includes David Marcey, a professor at California Lutheran University in Thousand Oaks. Marcey is one of 40 fellows selected for the Partnership for Undergraduate Life Science Education, which is trying to improve how colleges teach lifesciences.

The work is important because so many students give up on biology or other life sciences after sometimes challenging, but essential, courses such as freshman biology, Marceysaid.

"We have a very leaky ... pipeline," Marcey said. "Many students are interested in science entering college, and the attrition rate is phenomenal, especially among underrepresented groups" low-income students and those who are the first in their families to go tocollege.

Marcey's group has a year to take recommendations from the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the National Science Foundation and start making them reality. The group met for the first time in October and will meet again in June. Meanwhile, it has broken into four groups that talk monthly byphone.

"We're trying to build a framework that will spark the adoption of (those) recommendations at the department level nationally," Marceysaid.

Some universities already have adopted the group's overall approach, including the University of San Diego, where Rick Gonzalez, a member of the group, teachesbiology.

When Gonzalez teaches freshmen, he sends them out to do their own investigations, like having them find 30 plants of the same species, measure the plants' leaves and collect thedata.

"They're actually asking questions, then making measurements to answer those questions," Gonzalezsaid.

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CLU professor working to change college biology instruction