High school social studies teacher Vanessa Whitney and her students recently visited the National September 11 Memorial & Museum in lower Manhattan to participate in a workshop which reviewed the events of the day leading up to the collapse of the World Trade Center towers in 2001.

The high schoolers were then sent out as “student investigators” to analyze artifacts throughout the museum such as the Vesey Street “Survivors’ Stairs,” the North Tower antenna and a crushed truck from New York Fire Department Ladder Company 3, all while walking along the footprints of the original towers. One student was able to trace the name of her father’s childhood friend at the South Pool fountain.

“The museum and surrounding fountains truly honor those we lost on that tragic day,” said Whitney. “It was a truly touching and emotional experience for all of us, and so important for the students to understand the significance of the events in not only our nation’s history, but also its future.”