Brigham is charged with promoting the effective use of technology in the schools served by his BOCES. Chatting with a colleague (a major fishing enthusiast) one day, Brigham had an epiphany.

"I'm always looking for engaging ways to encourage teachers to use technology," Brigham explains. " My colleague, who belongs to Trout Unlimited, was talking about how the organization wanted to get involved in local and national education. I said 'what if we could actually put trout into an aquarium, and let our students study them?' Then, using software and hardware tools like the Vernier products, the kids would be able to collect the data, analyze it, and convey their findings. We both got pretty excited about the idea."

Probes, Eggs Hatch the Initiative
In almost no time, Brigham requested his first supply of trout eggs from the New York Department of Conservation. He deposited these into the aquarium housed at the BOCES office, while his friends at Trout Unlimited came through with the chilling mechanism needed to maintain the frigid waters trout favor. Soon enough, Brigham and company had a tank-full of new fish swimming happily about.

Says Brigham, "That was when we realized we had a viable model. From my past job as a teacher I knew about the Vernier probes. I felt sure the company could help us could come up with a way to measure water quality that would be both informative as well as fun for our students."