HUNTINGTON BEACH, Calif. — “Into the ocean, baby,” yelled out Dean Seward, a sophomore and one of seven Special Abilities students taking part in a fish release program conducted by Edison High School.

It wasn’t the ocean but Lake Huntington. No matter, the students were having a great time as they watched the fish take off for deeper water earlier this month.

The 100 or so finger-sized rainbow trout had been raised in the school’s Innovation Lab, where students get hands-on instruction in a variety of sciences and math.

Science teacher Greg Gardiner, along with instructional aide Chris Ruth and interpreter Kaycee Quinn, who communicated in sign language to a couple of deaf students in the group, accompanied the class on its project.

Gardiner scooped fish from a bucket and placed them in ones and twos into plastic cups, which the students took to the water’s edge and released.

“We’re going to let the fish be happy and free,” he said to the students, who cheered as the first fish swam off.

Gardiner said the release trip served a couple of goals: to get the students out and into public settings and “get them excited” about the class. Edison High draws students from across the Huntington Beach Union High School District to participate in its Special Abilities Cluster. Some can’t speak or communicate, some are in wheelchairs and may have severe retardation, but at Edison every effort is made to include them in curriculum and school life.

Throughout the year, the Special Abilities students have helped biology students and lab specialists raise and feed the fish.

“It’s a way for them to engage and look at science proactively,” Gardiner said. “It’s a way to do science that’s fun and applicable in their lives.”

As Gardiner was scooping one of the fish out of the bucket, Seward, the class jokester, said “Yum, yum.”

“You can’t eat the fish, Dean,” Gardiner said, bringing out a chorus of giggles.

The Innovation Lab, in its second year, is described as “a unique space for hands-on STEM lessons and project-based learning.”

The lab is also used for classes in chemistry, physics, botany and robotics.

However, the fish programs and aquaculture classes have been a centerpiece. Students raise the fish from eggs and also learn about water quality, ecosystems and habitat.

The release was the climax of the semester. It was the second release of trout this year. In the fall semester, a group of biology students went to Big Bear to release 162 fish. The Orange County Fly Fishers Club and the California Department of Fish and Wildlife support the trout effort through a program called Trout in the Classroom.

Later this month, other students from the school will release white sea bass into Huntington Harbour, the second such release of the school year. In December, 46 bass were released into the ocean.

In another class, students learn about aquaponics, a symbiotic system in which water with fish waste is circulated through plants, which extract fish waste from talapia for nutrition and return clean the water to the tank.

As some teachers like to say, the Innovation Lab is “a place to do science, rather than just study science.”

Fisherman Benjamin Kustura, 30, from Huntington Beach was excited about the fish release, that is before he saw the size of the baby trout.

“Fish and game were supposed to do a release this winter,” he said, adding that it didn’t happen.

“Whenever there’s a release, I try to get down here,” he said. “This is one of my favorite lakes. It’s kind of secluded.”

The freedom for some of the tiny trout may have been fleeting when, midway through the release, an armada of ducks along with several geese and a seagull showed up.

Luckily for the fish, shortly after the ducks came, a woman with a bucket of dry food appeared and drew the birds’ attention.