Requirements for the Reply Post:

• Ask your classmate something about their topic that you would like to learn more about.
• Share a comment/suggestion on one particular aspect of your classmate’s post.

#1

Good evening everyone. I’ll get this weeks forum post started. What I liked most about this course project (which really helped me out) was having the annotated bibliography, presentation outline and weather journal as an assignment in the prior weeks, and being able to use it for the final presentation. What did spark my interest in particular is reading and researching about how processing data for weather forecasts. In lesson 5, forecasting tools and how the methods of prediction and weather satellites are much more than just going on your phone to see the current weather. Another interesting lesson was how global climate change and greenhouse gasses had a relation from my presentation about wildfires and drought. For my resources, I did try to utilize the APUS Library in order to only use peer reviewed sources, and utilized open sources to get me on target on what to search in the library.  I attempted to use the peer reviewed sources  for majority of the research, but sometimes came to a stopping point and didn’t know what to look for since nothing would come up. I was would then use google to search for open sources, and get ideas of what to look for in the APUS Library. As for my educational goals, I will be staring two classes next week: Hazard Mitigation and Preparedness and Special Operations in Emergency Medical Services. Im not sure what to expect in the next two classes and am very apprehensive to start. I selected theses next classes because the looked interesting and worked with my scheduled. Hopefully I can keep up with these classes and hope to do well in them.

#2

I cannot believe that we are already in Week 8! Wow! It has been great learning with all of you.

My course project studied a tornado that touched down near my hometown in 2002. The tornado touched down in La Plata, MD and at the time I lived in Waldorf, MD. My school, however, was in La Plata. It was the most powerful tornado ever recorded in the DC area. My favorite part of the project was learning about something that actually impacted my home town so significantly. It definitely increased my understanding of tornadoes and how and why they form. 

A resource I found to be particularly helpful was actually an account of the event from the Mayor’s perspective. He wrote an article that I found very useful and touching. 

My Major is IT Management with a Minor in Intelligence Studies. I also plan on getting a certificate in IT Project Management. After this half of the semester, I will need 60 more credits to reach my goal. That is about 10 more classes. That’s 20 more months of classes. I plan on pushing all the way through and not stopping until I reach my goal. It took me 6 years to reach my goal of receiving an Associate’s Degree. I plan on getting my Bachelor’s in a timely manor 🙂

Next week I am starting Management Information Systems and Project Management using Microsoft Project. Both of those classes sound like they could be advantageous to my job. I hope to learn some skills that can be useful.

It’s been great getting to know all of you! I hope you enjoy my project.