Johnson County Community College, Kansas City Kansas Community College, and Metropolitan Community College are working in partnership to create the Bi-State Bioscience Consortium for Curriculum and Faculty Development. The consortium of three colleges seeks to prototype a model for a "virtual" community college that satisfies employer needs for job candidates with relevant hands-on skills and student needs for a coherent course of study from a multi-institutional menu. The project is strengthening the hands-on science content of general education technical math and writing courses, revising a foundation bioscience laboratory skills and safety course, and fostering new relationships across institutional boundaries that support course design and faculty development. Ultimately, the project is preparing community college students for jobs in Greater Kansas City's burgeoning bioscience sector.
