Most eighth graders who’ve grown up in the Northeast probably know what city John F. Kennedy International Airport is in, but Darius Mostaghimi picked the most inopportune moment to forget this basic fact.

It was during the analogy round of the final competition of the 22^nd annual Connecticut Geography Bee on April 9, and the question was: Sky Harbor Airport is to Phoenix as JFK Airport is to what? Sitting on an auditorium stage alongside nine other boys, Darius answered that JFK belongs in Massachusetts.

Mostaghimi, who lives in Madison, Conn., redeemed himself in the championship round, though, ultimately winning the state bee at Central Connecticut State University in New Britain. He defeated eighth-grader Jack Walsh of Bethel on the first tiebreaker question, which was needed because they both answered the first three questions correctly.

Eighth-grader Darius Mostaghimi, left, shown with his father, Mehdi, won the Connecticut Geography Bee on April 9. He will compete in the National Geography Bee on May 25-26. (Photo by Peter Kollmann/CNS)

The sudden-death question was: What country has Melville, Mornington and Bathurst islands? Canada has Melville and Bathurst islands, but Australia, the correct answer, has all three.

“It was a guess,” said Darius, who thought at first that Jack got it right because he wrote Canada down immediately. “The islands sounded English. I was so surprised it was Australia.”

Darius’s dad, Mehdi, was worried about his 13-year-old son, who placed third overall last year as a seventh grader.

“He has a tendency of missing easy questions,” said Mehdi, who is Iranian and teaches economics and finance at Southern Connecticut State University in New Haven. “But the next one was tough, so I felt better. The questions were a lot harder this year.”

Darius, who attends Walter C. Polson Middle School, makes up for missing easy questions with his work ethic. Kathryn Robertson, his seventh-grade social studies teacher, observed his dedication firsthand when she had lunch duty.

“He is so focused,” Robertson said. “He would bring a book with him to lunch. You always saw him with an atlas. He’s also a gentleman, very polite.”

Studying atlases is becoming a dying form of education for middle-school students. In an age of iPhones and Google Maps, less emphasis is placed on going to a library and physically picking up books to study. But the winners of the Connecticut Geography Bee, sponsored by Google Inc. and Plum Creek Timber Co., know that an old-school approach works.

In addition to earning $100 and the “National Geographic Collegiate Atlas of the World,” Darius advances to the National Geography Bee, held in Washington, D.C., on May 25-26 and moderated by “Jeopardy!” host Alex Trebek. The national winner will receive a $25,000 college scholarship, a lifetime membership in the National Geographic Society and an all-expenses paid trip to the Galápagos Islands.

The National Geography Bee started in 1989 for students in grades four through eight, in response to concern about lack of geographic knowledge among young people in the United States. Most national champions were eighth-graders, but a fifth-grader, Calvin McCarter from Michigan, won in 2002.

“A lot of the kids who have won it have gone on to have amazing careers,” National Geographic Society Communications Coordinator John McFeely said.

David Stillman, the 1991 national champion, works in the Information Technology department at Northwest Nazarene University in Nampa, Idaho. Stillman, who traced maps of National Geographic magazine when he was 3 years old, said that one long-term benefit of his studies is his ability to interact with foreigners.

“If you know geography, you can get an instant connection with people from foreign countries,” said Stillman, who thinks the geography bee questions are harder now than when he won. “It made a tremendous impact on my life, in self-worth.”

Everyone’s heard of spelling bees, but geography ones? They’re equally tough. You’re expected to know random facts such as what country borders Burkina Faso and Libya (Niger) and what state is known as the “Land of 10,000 Lakes” (Minnesota). The pressure to perform is high.

“I’ve had kids crying when they got one wrong,” said Richard Benfield, a Central Connecticut State geography professor who moderated a preliminary round. “Moms need to come and console them. This is a big day for most of them. They’re representing their schools. They’re petrified.”

Benfield, an expert on the Asian country of Kyrgyzstan who’s traveling to India in June to study snow leopards, moderated a group of 20 students in one of five preliminary groups. Parents crowded into the back of a small classroom. After eight rounds of questions, the top students advanced to the championship level at the Herbert D. Welte Auditorium.

In contrast to the 1990s, when the top two students in each preliminary session advanced to the final round of the state competition, the current system takes the top 10 overall best performers. For instance, if six students in one preliminary group got all eight questions right and none of the other 94 participants did, the six perfectionists would advance. This change was made, state bee coordinator William DeGrazia explained, to reward the students who do exceptionally well in the preliminaries.

Darius, whose other hobbies include golf, soccer and playing the piano, got seven of eight questions right before tackling some tough questions (excluding the airport one) in the finals. Ironically, he and his family have often flown out of JFK to travel to China and Iran. The geography whiz, who turns 14 on May 2, knows he’ll be in for a challenge at the national finals.

“I think the national part of the National Geographic Bee will be very hard to follow with the tight schedule upon arrival and much more difficult questions that will be given,” Darius said.