2025-2026 Lecturer: Katherine Ryker

Katherine Ryker

University of South Carolina

Biography 

Dr. Katherine Ryker is a geoscience education researcher with nearly 20 years of teaching experience at the college and high school levels. She holds a PhD in Geoscience Education and an MS in Geology from North Carolina State University as well as a BS in Earth & Ocean Sciences and a secondary science teaching license from Duke University, giving her academic foundation a unique blend of scientific expertise and pedagogical inquiry. She is the incoming President of the National Association of Geoscience Teachers (NAGT) for 2025-2026, a Past President of NAGT's Geoscience Education Research Division, and a Fellow of the Geological Society of America (GSA).

Dr. Ryker’s research is highly regarded for its focus on improving student learning through inquiry-based labs, active learning practices, and student-centered teaching methodologies. Her scholarly work extends to significant, community-wide projects, including contributing to the development of a collaborative research framework for the geoscience education community and helping to describe the community’s needs to grow. She is a recognized advocate for justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion, actively working to make the geosciences more accessible to all. This dedication, coupled with her innovative pedagogical approaches, has earned her numerous accolades, including multiple awards for outstanding papers, the prestigious Biggs Award for Excellence in Earth Science Teaching from GSA, the Dorothy LaLonde Stout lecturer for AGU, and the Garnet Apple Award and Mungo Undergraduate Teaching Award from the University of South Carolina.

Abstract: A 1% Better Geoscience Education Ecosystem

What does an idealized geoscience education ecosystem look like, and how do we get there? In this talk, I will adapt the lessons of the British Cycling director, Dave Brailsford, in 2003 towards the ultimate goal of improving our geoscience education ecosystem, from formal college learning environments to the practice of science communication. Brailsford’s strategy was “the aggregation of marginal gains” - the philosophy of looking for every opportunity to improve what you do, no matter how small. Say I found a way to improve my classroom instruction by 1% each day of the semester. The compound interest over 30 meetings means my class would have improved by about 1.3%. After 12 iterations of the course, it would have improved by about 35.9%. Being in my 12th year of teaching courses like physical geology at the college level, I have to ask: what does my career best effort look like as an educator, and how can I, like the British Cycling teams of the early 2000s, show through data how far I’ve come - and where I have to grow? This talk will invite audience members to consider how they too can contribute towards an accumulation of gains across the geoscience education ecosystem, improving it for generations to come.