On the morning of 9/11, I was preparing to teach a Physics Lab on Bernoulli’s principle. My students were experimenting with the design of aircraft wings as they investigated the physics of “lift.” This meant that they would have to propose various designs and develop a methodology for testing the efficacy of their designs.

The First Plane: As the students slowly streamed in, they were announcing that a plane had crashed into one of the twin towers in NY City. This caused great agitation in some of my students who had friends and family in NY. A few minutes passed and more students entered the room upset about the plane crash. It became clear to me that we would not be able to do this particular lab as it would involve the “crashing” of airplanes. I decided to consult the lab coordinator to see if we had the…