Alex Fager scans current events online daily at 6 a.m. and then studies his atlas—the 14-year-old has already worn out a few copies—trying to memorize the locations of major cities, rivers and mountains throughout the world.

The Our Savior Lutheran School eighth-grader is fascinated by geography, so winning the state's National Geographic Bee last week for the third year was no surprise to his classmates.

Fager's geography teacher, Todd Coolidge, said younger students at the Aiea school look up to Fager like wide-eyed fans and are vowing to fill his shoes once he graduates and moves to Florida this year.

Coolidge will go with Fager to the 2010 National Geography Bee Championships in Washington, D.C., May 25 and 26. About 100 students grades four to eight will compete in the event sponsored by Google Earth.

Coming from a home stocked with history books, Fager has been a history aficionado since second or third grade. It inspired his interest in geography because “;you can't understand history without knowing where a country is,”; Fager said.

“;In geography it goes so much further than knowing the names of places; it's knowing the cultural and moral values (and other factors) of these places—they all play a part.”;

Knowing a nation's history is the best way for him to remember its geographic landmarks, said Fager. The set of geography reference books that his grandparents gave him for winning his first state bee two years ago is dog-eared from so much use, he said.

After school there's swim practice or Boy Scouts (he's going for his Eagle rank), and homework. Only then does he allows himself to indulge in 45 to 90 minutes a day online on Google Earth—”;I don't let it take over my life,”; he said.

Fager thinks he'll survive the preliminary rounds at the championships because “;I got lots of study tips from the other kids (at the nationals), and I've been watching cultural DVDs—that helps. And I've been studying blank maps, which just show the outlines of countries.”;

And just for fun, Fager researches topics that piqued his interest that day—like orthographic precipitation (rain caused by humid air carried up a mountain) or zone of ablation (part of a glacier lost to melting and evaporation).

Fager hopes to put his knowledge to work someday as a U.S. diplomat, perhaps an economic attache.