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WHEN CARYN CONNOLLY teaches her Coquille High School students about Botswana's Okavango Swamps or its Kalahari Desert, she has an advantage—she's been there. So have Portland teachers John Kavanaugh, who teaches at Lane Middle School, and Becky Wandell, who teaches at Earl Boyles Elementary.

They were part of a group of 12 teachers and two college professors who traveled to the southern Africa country through the Oregon Geographic Alliance, a program of PSU's Department of Geography. The project received funding through a $65,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Education.

During their monthlong summer stay, the teachers and Teresa Bulman, PSU professor of geography, learned about the country's environment, culture, resources, and conservation practices. They visited schools, parks, a game reserve, a diamond mine, and the U.S. Embassy in Gaborone. With their firsthand knowledge, the teachers will write a curriculum for their own Oregon classrooms.