Chemistry faculty from nine Illinois community colleges have formed a consortium that serves an annual credit enrollment of over 157,000 students and an annual chemistry enrollment of over 6,000 students. The consortium is composed of community colleges from urban, suburban, and rural communities: Oakton Community College, The City Colleges of Chicago, College of DuPage, College of Lake County, Triton College, William Rainey Harper College, McHenry County College, Illinois Eastern--Olney Central, and Joliet Junior College. This consortium is reforming first-year chemistry curricula on member campuses by adapting and adopting the materials produced by the Modular Chemistry Consortium and the ChemLinks Coalition to meet the needs of students enrolled in community colleges. These materials were developed by two of the projects funded by the current National Science Foundation (NSF) chemistry initiative. The new chemistry curriculum is active and inquiry-based, flexible enough to address the many learning styles represented by a diverse student population, and more relevant to the lives of the students. The process of adapting and adopting involves an active collaboration between the consortium faculty and representatives of ModularChemistry and ChemLinks. The process also includes partnerships with industry and professional organizations. This project extends the impact of the current NSF systemic chemistry initiative by serving as a model for other community colleges considering the modular approach to reform of the first-year chemistry curriculum. Because nearly half of the nation's college students are enrolled in community colleges and a large portion of future teachers receive their science education at a community college, the potential impact of this project is significant.
