When Studied From Sky, Geography Becomes Something to Remember

At 3,500 feet, even high school geography is exhilarating.

This is not your Bismarck-is-the-capital-of-North Dakota geography, not your Death Valley-is-the- lowest-point-in-the-Western Hemisphere geography. This is “Imperial Valley Geography from the Sky,” a course that a few dozen teens at Brawley Union High School will never forget.

Supported by local businessmen, social sciences teacher Don Biagi takes his students aloft in a fleet of borrowed light planes to bring alive the diversity of the Imperial Valley desert basin in which they live.

“You can show pictures and you can show film all you want,” Biagi said, “but it’s like reaching out and being able to touch it when you’re up in the air.”

“It’s not really the same until you get to see it for yourself,” said 16-year-old Stephenie Dickerson, who was one of the first students in the course two years ago. “You hear about what it’s supposed to look like, but when you’re finally up there, you can sort of understand what they mean about how much different things look from the air.”

The commercial air time would cost about $60 per hour for each person, but Brawley High pays nothing because Biagi has persuaded area businesses to participate in one of the state’s most unusual “adopt-a-school” arrangements. Through shameless and aggressive promotion, he now has eight planes and seven pilots at his disposal.

Brawley students have toured the valley courtesy of McConnell Air Inc., Moiola Farms, Orita Land and Cattle, veterinarian Ben York and several others who couldn’t turn down Biagi’s pleas for a winged classroom.

“One good thing about Brawley, it’s always been a place that’s very receptive to helping the students and the school,” said Pete Schoonover, who took Biagi, two students, a photographer and a reporter aloft in his six-seat Cherokee Lance II.

“Economics down here are pretty bad . . . but people hardly ever say no. I think they’re just more home grown. Most people around here have lived here all their lives. I graduated from (Brawley High) and I feel it’s still a part of me.”

Although the project has won a county excellence award, Biagi realizes that his class is at the mercy of the economy in this agricultural community just north of the Mexican border, about 120 miles east of San Diego.

“I’ve got my fingers crossed because agriculture in the last three or four years has really taken a beating,” he said. “If the money is not there and they have to cut back, I’m going to go.”

Biagi dreamed up the course while driving in his car about three years ago. He immediately drove over to plane-company owner Jim McConnell’s office and sold the idea to him. Then he convinced Supt. Richard Fragale, received approval from the school district’s lawyer and insurance company and wrote the curriculum.

Finally, the program was approved by the Board of Education. Biagi and Fragale say it is the only one of its kind in the state, if not the country.

Biagi is laying plans to spread the word of his project through the state Department of Education and by presenting his results at social sciences conferences. If other California schools pick it up, he wants to offer his idea to school districts in other parts of the country.

Although it is called a geography course, the class encompasses agriculture, engineering, geology and history, lessons bellowed by Biagi over the din of the plane’s single engine.

The tiny plane takes off into the glare and haze of sunrise just after 6:30 a.m., and within minutes Biagi is pointing out landmarks and announcing elevation and airspeed, which are noted by sophomores Alec Grindley and Chrissy Webb for the report they must complete after they land.

In a two-hour period, they head west as far as Seeley, north to Salton City, east to the Colorado River and south over the Mexican border, with the students snapping photos that will accompany their presentation. They follow the paths of the Coachella and All-American canals, view the Chocolate Mountains, the Salton Sea, the Pilot Knob hydroelectric plant, the New River and countless other highlights of the valley.

The valley’s parched desert and lush agriculture are framed in the basin formed by surrounding mountains as the plane reaches heights of nearly 5,000 feet. Rivers, towns and canals spread out like a map below, giving some students their first overall glimpse of the region.

For those who have never flown before and may not board an airplane again for years, the experience of flying is as important as the geography lessons learned.

“This is an experience you’ll never forget,” Biagi tells some of his more reluctant students. “I don’t want you to miss it.”

“I just remember it more because it was a fun trip, the first time in an airplane,” said Sergio Sagasta, who flew last year.

Lasting Impression

For others, the impression is lasting. “Every time I look at Brawley or Calexico, I’ll just remember how it was when I was up here,” Webb said.

Requirements for the trip, which is offered as part of the students’ yearlong World Culture curriculum, are a C average, parental permission and completion of two hours of preflight orientation. Each student who qualifies takes one flight.

“I don’t gear to the A students,” Biagi said. “I could have very easily taken every A student and flown them, but that wouldn’t have proven anything.” Since Biagi began his project three years ago, the 41 students who have taken the flight have earned a collective grade point average of 3.4, Biagi said. Only one has failed.

Instead, Biagi uses the flight as bait for some students whose academic performance can be improved.