Despite wall-to-wall coverage of the damage from Hurricane Katrina, nearly one-third of young Americans recently polled couldn't locate Louisiana on a map--and nearly half were unable to identify Mississippi.

Americans between the ages of 18 and 24 fared even worse with foreign locations: six in 10 couldn't find Iraq on a map of the Middle East, according to a Roper poll conducted for National Geographic.

"Geographic illiteracy impacts our economic well-being, our relationships with other nations and the environment, and isolates us from the world," National Geographic President John Fahey said in announcing a new multimedia program to help remedy the problem. The group is hoping to enlist businesses, nonprofit organizations, and educators in a bid to improve geographic literacy.

Planned is a five-year campaign, called My Wonderful World, that will target children ages 8 to 17. The goal is to motivate parents and educators to expand geographic offerings in school, at home, and in their communities.

At the heart of the campaign is a new web site, MyWonderfulWorld.org, that provides resources for parents and teachers to help kids become more geo-savvy. It includes suggestions for simple, outdoor family activities that help teach kids about geography, links to geography games and online adventures for kids and teens, classroom materials for educators, and ways for site visitors to test their global IQs. The site also provides tools for communicating to policy makers and education leaders the importance of geographic literacy.

Supporters of the campaign appear to have their task cut out for them, judging by the results of the Roper survey of 510 people interviewed in December and January.

Among the poll's findings: