Home Onboarding Graduate Expectations Data & Deliverables DEI
Authorship Agreement Other Resources Off-Boarding Alumni & Current Students

Hello! Welcome to the Ryker Research Group. We are so glad to have you as a part of this community. This page was created so that you have everything you need to put your best foot forward and to hit the ground running when you begin your research!

Table of Contents:

1. Read the appropriate Expectations Document

Undergraduate and Postdoc Expectations documents are under construction - stay tuned!

Graduate Expectations

2. Create Your Personal Strategic Plan

Your Personal Tracker — Duplicate Me!

3. Getting started

These are some typical first steps students take as they get onboarded to the lab.

• E-mail Katherine to get access to the shared Ryker Research Lab Google Drive and added as a member to this Notion page. She will set up a folder within the Google drive for you to store your work and (if appropriate) keep a spreadsheet of your hours worked.
  • The document that you’re reading right now is a living document, maintained by the lab! Being a member of the Notion page will allow you to easily comment on parts if you see things that need updating or clarification. You can also talk to or e-mail Katherine if you prefer.
• Create an account at CITI Program and complete the Social & Behavioral Researchers and Social & Behavioral Researchers: Responsible Conduct of Research courses. These are training courses required to begin working with human subjects data.
• Give yourself a block of time to review the documents below. Highlight, make notes, and ask questions about anything that isn’t clear!
  • The lab website as a whole. Poke around as much as you like. This is great discussion fodder for a meeting with Katherine after you’ve completed your CITI training.
  • For graduate students specifically:
    • Review the appropriate SEOE Graduate Progress to Degree document, as well as the Graduate Handbook: https://sc.edu/study/colleges_schools/artsandsciences/earth_ocean_and_environment/myseoe/Student-forms-checklists.php
    • Review the “Steps Toward Graduation” for your degree: https://sc.edu/study/colleges_schools/graduate_school/academics/progress_to_degree/
• Make yourself a time-to-degree calendar. Lay out what is required of you in or by each semester. Run it by more experienced students to see if they think it seems reasonable. And of course, share it with Katherine to make sure you’re on the same page! Students are often surprised that research takes longer than they expect. Again, this is great fodder for an early discussion!
• Getting connected! Katherine will support student memberships in GSA and NAGT, as well as their Geoscience Education Division (GSA) and Geoscience Education Research Division (NAGT-GER). If there are other memberships that you believe would be advantageous to your development, talk to Katherine about them.
  • Most memberships operate on a calendar year. Unless otherwise needed, Katherine typically renews everyone’s memberships around January. She needs to get a memo approved by the Dean’s office to spend money on memberships, so please don’t leave requests to the last minute.