WASHINGTON, DC — My Community, Our Earth (MyCOE) has selected 25 elementary and secondary school teachers from the Middle East/North Africa region to attend its specialized training program on geographic information systems (GIS) in Tunis, Tunisia. Training will be held August 12–15, 2008, at the venue of the International Geographical Union Conference.

Through the program, teachers will learn to use geographic technologies to develop an interactive, hands-on curriculum that supports basic math and science education throughout the region. They also will learn to leverage geography and GIS as interdisciplinary learning tools to promote fact-based decision-making, critical thinking, and problem-solving skills. Those skills will in turn enable students to make informed decisions for their communities and help them increase their employment opportunities.

The participating teachers were competitively selected from Tunisia, Bahrain, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Yemen. Each teacher will become a master trainer and serve as a resource for colleagues in their communities.

MyCOE has also successfully conducted similar programs in South Asia to support environmental education and in Central America to protect biodiversity.

For more information, please contact Patricia Solís at 202-234-1450 ext. 222 or email at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .

My Community, Our Earth: Geographic Learning for Sustainable Development is an international nongovernmental program that provides students around the world with geographic tools to learn about challenges in their communities and engages them to develop solutions. It was developed through public and private partnerships, and was launched at the World Summit for Sustainable Development in 2002. The Association of American Geographers serves as secretariat. This initiative also receives support from the U.S. Department of State, ESRI, and others. Visit www.geography.org/sustainable.