Rainflower L.E.A.P. Training — Student Researchers & Coordinators

Section 01Who this is for

Two roles, one method. This session trains both of them together, because a coordinator who has never run a study cannot review one.

Researchers

Students in grades 9–12 who choose a water question where they live, and collect the evidence themselves.

Coordinators

Leads for a regional group. They approve field activity before it begins and review every submission that comes back.

Section 02The L.E.A.P. cycle

L.E.A.P. is a loop, not a ladder. Each stage’s output becomes the next stage’s input, and every pilot raises new questions — which is where the next Learn begins. You are not finished when you reach Pilot. You are back at the start with better instruments.

↻  Pilot returns to Learn. What broke is the next question.

Section 03What counts as research

Effort is not evidence. Work is accepted into the Rainflower record when it meets five conditions, and a coordinator will send it back until it does.

• A question that can actually be investigated with what you have.
• A method written clearly enough that someone else can repeat it.
• Honest records — including the messy readings and the results you did not expect.
• Claims no larger than your data supports.
• A reflection on what your study could not tell you.

A gauge that overflowed, a survey nobody answered, a diverter that clogged in week two — all of that is publishable. Rounding a number toward the answer you wanted is not, and it ends your participation.

Section 04How Rainflower is organized

Four levels, and every one of them is reachable. If you cannot get an answer from the level above you within two days, go one level higher.

Founder

Sets research direction and holds final say on what enters the public record.

Advisors

Teachers and working scientists who review method and check claims before publication.

Coordinators

Run a region, approve field activity in advance, and review every submission from their group.

Researchers

Run the studies and own the data they collect.

Section 05Before any field work

Nothing starts in the field until all four permissions are in place. This is the part of the training we do not compress.

• A signed parental agreement for the student doing the work.
• Written coordinator approval for that specific activity, before it begins.
• An explanation to anyone involved — who you are, what you are measuring, and why — before you ask them for anything.
• A “no” accepted the first time it is given, without persuading.

Privacy applies to people, their homes, and photographs alike. Record no names you do not need, never photograph the inside of a home, and never publish an image where a person or a house number is identifiable without asking that household first.