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Martena Hill felt a little conflicted Thursday morning — she was sad to see her class ducklings swim away but hopeful they would find a flock of their own. For the past three months, the mallards have been part of a flock of seventh-graders, including Martena, at ASTEC Charter Middle School in Oklahoma City.

Students of science teacher Jeff Brown raised eight mallards from eggs this spring, then set the young ducks free at Lake Hefner on Thursday. It was the final day of school for both students and ducks.

Brown bought 14 mallard eggs from a hatchery in Iowa, and the students incubated them for four weeks. The students carefully turned over the eggs and tended them in the incubator, Martena said.

When the ducklings began to hatch, six eggs didn't survive.

"We thought they were going to hatch,” Martena said, "but they didn't.”

The eight survivors were named Annel, Axel, David, Fernando, Maria, Quinton, Sebastian and Trilobite.

All of Brown's students helped take care of the ducklings, and parents donated feed for the baby birds. The ducklings lived inside the school for the first few weeks. When they were old enough, they were allowed to stay outside and swim in a playground pond.

The ducks grew quickly, especially this month, Brown said.

"Just in the last week,” he said, "their voices changed from ‘cheep, cheep, cheep' to ‘quack, quack, quack.'”

At the lake Thursday morning, eight students carried eight birds in brown canvas bags, and the rest of the kids walked along in the parade toward the pond.

A few ducks poked their heads out of the bags.

Others rustled around inside. The students were excited — talking and joking and laughing. They shushed each other when Brown talked.

"OK,” Brown announced, "everybody that has a duck, follow me.”

Brown and his eight helpers hiked down the hill to the water, where they gathered for one last picture with the birds. The students held their ducks and smiled. They knelt down to the water and gently let the ducks go.

The mallards grouped up and swam along the bank. They aren't old enough to fly yet.

"I feel sad about releasing them,” student Tommy Tran said. "We miss the ducks.”

Martena said the project was exciting, even though students were a little sad to see the ducklings leave.

"It was fun,” she said. "We got to watch the ducks grow up.”