Laura Wallin, a teacher at the school, and her students participated in Trout in the Classroom, a program where teachers buy the necessary equipment to raise and house fish that will be stocked into a lake or stream.

The equipment to raise the fish was purchased by the school and costs about $900, according to Ross Morgan, a public information officer for New Mexico Department of Game and Fish, which runs the program.

Once the system was set up, Game and Fish provided the eggs. Wallin's class raised about 100 fish from eggs to fingerlings (fish about finger length), a process that usually takes about 120 days.

Students learn how to monitor tank water quality, engage in stream or pond habitat studies, foster a conservation ethic and understand ecosystem connectivity.

On March 2, after the fish had grown large enough to fend for themselves in the wild, Wallin, her class and New Mexico Game and Fish Officer Rick Castell took the fish to Manzano Lake and released them.

"This is a really neat program that engages the kids brains on some real hands-on fisheries management," Morgan said.