Initial Publication Date: April 22, 2008

Richelle Allen-King's Top Ten Tips

Each year at the Early Career workshop, Richelle Allen-King presents her top ten tips for working effectively with research students. Richelle teaches at SUNY-Buffalo. Here is her list from 2007.

  1. Ask about & respect their goals.
  2. Find models of (positive) research student interactions appropriate to your setting.
  3. Discuss expectations (yours and theirs).
  4. Have a weekly check-in.
  5. Recruit good students to work on topics of high interest to you.
  6. Define student topics carefully & together (try to be realistic - you may want to have students work in teams on more ambitious projects).
  7. Work together with students in lab or field at key times.
  8. Help students manage their project (examples, student day planners, and project flow sheets).
  9. Celebrate together.
  10. Read the National Research Council's Adviser, Teacher, Role Model, Friend (bibliographic information and summary)