TULSA, Okla. — When middle school students at Riverfield County Day School walked into class, they saw a recording of the TODAY Show from Sept. 11, 2001.
WATCH: U.S. commemorates 9/11 victims and heroes 23 years after tragic day
Some of the students in this year's 8th grade class were born in 2011, a decade after the historic tragedy.
"To some people, it might just look like toothpicks but what I see, a toothpick is representing a person," said Maya Vaughan, an 8th-grade student.
She's talking about a piece of the project the class does to honor the victims lost in 9/11.
The students gather 2,977 toothpicks, each representing a person killed. They then color the toothpick specific to that person's position, whether police fire, innocent bystander, etc.
The project is a visual representation of the loss endured in the United States on that day.
"Also a lot of people, being really sad, losing all their family members and it's important people because everyone matters. And it’s just a really big number. I think any number is a big number for a loss, though," Vaughan said.
That’s why teachers at RCDS strive to teach empathy and ensure that students know the importance of the day.
"Yesterday, actually, I saw the date on my way home from school and I said ‘Tomorrow is 9/11, is it okay if we didn’t talk about it tomorrow?’ But going forward today, I realized that it is really important to talk about it, because you can avoid the important things that have to be talked about," said Vaughan.
The day starts with the NBC News recording that plays while students write down a series of numbers.
Each number represents various facts from the day and is listed in columns.
"All this is important stuff that happens, like the rise in anti-Muslim hate crimes. 12,962, that’s ridiculous just because they’re that religion doesn’t mean they did anything wrong," said Vaughan.
After learning what each number represents, including blood donations, the time of impact, and the number of countries impacted, the student folded the papers in half.
That splits the page into two columns, which becomes the Twin Towers.
But it's not only what happened in New York City. Vaughan said she knew other places were affected but didn't know the Pentagon was hit and other places targeted.
"I knew that something else was hit I wasn’t really always sure what but I learned today that it was a really strategic attack. They went for economics. They went for military and they were going to go for like leadership, which would have been the White House," Vaughan said.
She said it is impactful to take a day to learn about what happened 23 years ago.
"I noticed a lot of people just like myself really in awe of learning everything because I think that we are finally 13-14 years old now. We’re finally mature enough to actually learn about all the numbers and everything that had happened and get into the details," said Vaughan.
Vaughan said she looks at the day differently understanding why it needs to be taught.
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