The grand plan, in plain words.

We want Bangladeshi students to do real science about something that matters to everyone here: water. Not a school essay copied from the internet. Real research, with real people, real places and real numbers that you collected yourself.

Most research about Bangladesh is written by adults, often from far away. You live here. You can walk to the tube well, the water seller, the pond and the kitchen tap. You can ask your neighbours questions that no outside researcher can. That makes your work valuable.

Our goal is for your papers to reach the standard of science journals in the United States that publish work by high school students. Each cycle, Rainflower selects some accepted papers and submits them to a journal on the authors' behalf. If a paper is accepted there, your name is on it. But publication is a bonus, not the definition of success.

A successful project ends with three things.

1. A finished research paper in English, written to international standards for young scientists. It asks one clear question about water, explains how you studied it, shows your data, and says honestly what you found and what you could not find.
2. A full evidence package that supports the work and shows it is yours: your survey data, your interview videos, your photos and your field notes.
3. Acceptance by Rainflower. Rainflower checks the paper and the evidence, grades it, and your advisor rates it. This is where you earn raindrops, whatever any journal decides later.

Success is not "proving" something big. A small, careful study that answers a small question honestly is exactly what good science looks like. A paper that finds "we expected X but found Y" is still a success. And a paper that Rainflower accepts is a complete success even if it is not selected for a journal.

You are never working blind. Four kinds of support follow your project from the first week to the last.

• Your AI research assistant

  Every student gets one. It reads your plan, your survey, your early data and your drafts at every stage, keeps track of your progress, and gives feedback you can act on right away. Use it often. It is there to make the work better, not to do it for you.

• Your coordinator

  The coordinator runs a checklist review: are you collecting data with a proper method, are you staying safe, and are you being honest. The checklist runs before field work and again before you submit.

• Your advisor

  Once you have a first sample of data, an advisor reviews your question, your sampling plan and your early results. Later the advisor reviews your finished paper and gives the star rating that is part of your reward.

• Rainflower

  Rainflower approves projects, reviews the final paper and evidence package, grades the paper, and decides which papers go to a journal.

Any Rainflower student in grades 9 to 12 can take on a research paper.

• Where you are. Right now our researchers are in Dhaka, Chittagong, Noakhali and Sylhet. Each project says which regions it suits best.
• Alone or in a team. You can work alone, or in a team of 2 to 5. Each project says the team size it needs. A team shares the work and the credit; everyone on the team is a co-author.
• Time. Plan for about 3 months. You do not need to stop school or other activities. A few focused hours each week is enough if you keep going.
• What you need. A phone with a camera, a notebook, internet access, and a free account on AKTI Survey. No lab and no special equipment is required. Each project also comes with a cash budget for expenses, so you are not expected to pay for travel, mobile data or printing yourself.

Every project is about water in Bangladesh. Water touches every home, every school and every market, so there are hundreds of good questions to ask. Projects fall into five kinds:

• Resources. Where water comes from, who owns it, how it is shared.
• Crisis. Shortages, contamination, cost, access, waste.
• Awareness. What people know, believe and do about their water.
• Solutions. Filters, storage, pricing, community rules, and whether they work.
• Investigations. Measuring and documenting what is really happening in one place.

Two example topics: The State of Drinking Water in Our Neighbourhood and The Price of Water in Our City.

One firm rule: every project must be doable in any month of the year. Do not choose a study that only works in the monsoon or only in the dry season. So "how floods affect wells" is not allowed, but "how households store water and why" is. Water still changes with the season, so record when you collected your data and say in your paper how the season may have affected what you saw.

A project moves through seven stages. The weeks are a guide, not a rule. Finishing well matters more than finishing fast. Your AI research assistant checks in at every stage.

1. Choose and plan weeks 1–2

   Pick a project from Rainflower and read the proposal carefully. Decide your exact research question, who you will ask, and where. Draft your survey on AKTI Survey and write your interview questions. Your AI research assistant reviews the plan with you.

2. Permission, checklist and pilot weeks 2–3

   Get your parents' or guardians' agreement. Prepare the consent text for everyone you survey, interview or photograph. Your coordinator runs the first checklist review. Then pilot your survey with 3 to 5 people and fix whatever confuses them.

3. First sample and advisor review weeks 3–4

   Collect a small first batch of data. Your AI assistant checks it. Then an advisor reviews your question, your sampling plan and your early results. Change course now if something cannot answer your question.

4. Full data collection weeks 5–8

   Run the survey, record interviews, take geo-tagged photos, and keep a field diary with dates and places. Your proposal gives you the response target.

5. Analyse weeks 9–10

   Count, compare and chart your data. Look for patterns and for surprises. Decide what your data can support and what it cannot.

6. Write weeks 11–12

   Write the paper using the Rainflower template: introduction, methods, results, discussion, limitations, references. Your AI assistant gives feedback on every draft.

7. Final review and submit week 13

   Check the before-you-submit list. Your coordinator runs the final checklist. Upload the paper and the evidence package. Rainflower reviews and grades it, your advisor rates it, and you have a short conversation explaining your findings in your own words.

This is the heart of the program. Your paper is only as strong as the evidence behind it. Every project must produce all three kinds of evidence.

Your proposal says how much of each evidence type your project needs. In your methods section, explain why each one fits your question.

Who you ask matters as much as how many. A survey of your neighbours tells you about your neighbours, not about your whole city or all of Bangladesh. Say in your paper exactly who you reached, how you chose them, and what your results can and cannot claim. Your proposal and your advisor help you set a sample that fits the question.

The evidence does two jobs. It supports every claim in your paper. And it shows that the work is yours. Photos and videos help, but on their own they cannot prove it; your field diary, your stage-by-stage submissions, your check-ins with your AI assistant and advisor, and your final conversation about your findings complete the picture. A paper without an evidence package will not be accepted.

Keep everything, and keep it private. Raw survey exports, full video files, original photos with location data, and your field diary go into your evidence package. Only you, your team, your coordinator, your advisor and Rainflower reviewers can see the originals. The public paper uses summaries, anonymised quotes and selected photos with exact locations removed.

AI tools are allowed as a helper, never as the author. The line is simple: AI can help you present your work, but it cannot do your work. That includes your Rainflower AI research assistant.

Every paper includes a short AI-use statement that says exactly what you used AI for. Being open about it is normal in science and costs you nothing. Hiding it, or faking data, ends the project.

You will be working with real people and real places. Scientists follow rules to protect them, and so will you.

• Ask first. Before anyone answers your survey, speaks on video or appears in a photo, explain what your project is and get their clear agreement. Anyone can say no, and anyone can stop at any time.
• Three separate choices. Taking part in your study, being recorded, and having anything shared publicly are three different permissions. Ask for each one separately, and respect a yes to one and a no to another.
• Children need a parent. If you want to survey or interview someone under 18, a parent or guardian must agree first.
• Protect privacy. Do not put full names, phone numbers or home addresses in your paper. Describe people by role ("a shopkeeper in Sylhet"), not by name, unless they ask to be named. Exact household locations stay in the private evidence package, which is kept only as long as the review and any journal process need it and is deleted on request.
• Your own safety comes first. Tell your family where you are going. Work in daylight and in public places. Never enter private property, a factory or a water facility without permission. Do not go near fast water, open wells or unstable banks.
• Be fair. Report what people said, not what you wished they had said. If your data disagrees with your idea, the data wins.

Each paper has an ethics statement that confirms you followed these rules. Your coordinator's checklist and Rainflower's review check it before any paper is graded or sent to a journal.

• Skills that last. You learn to ask a sharp question, design a survey, interview strangers politely, handle data, and write clearly in English. Universities and employers notice these skills.
• A budget for expenses. Every project has a cash budget, stated in the proposal, for the real costs of field work: travel, mobile data, printing consent forms, and small items you need. Track what you spend in your field diary.
• Raindrops. Every project also shows its raindrop reward before you accept it. You earn raindrops when Rainflower accepts your paper, and more for a strong grade and a strong advisor rating. Raindrops never depend on a journal's decision.
• A chance to be published. Each cycle, Rainflower selects a few accepted papers and submits them to youth science journals in the United States. A published paper with your name on it is rare for a high school student anywhere in the world.
• A record of real work. Your evidence package and your paper become a portfolio you can show for scholarships, competitions and university applications.

Three steps are easy to mix up. Keep them apart.

1. Rainflower acceptance. Your paper and evidence pass review and get a grade. This is the finish line for every project, and the point where raindrops are paid.
2. Journal submission. From the accepted papers, Rainflower selects some and submits them to a US youth science journal on your behalf. Selection is Rainflower's decision, based on how well the paper and its evidence would stand up to outside review.
3. Journal acceptance. The journal decides, usually after months and often with requests for changes. Rainflower works with you on those changes.

Most papers stop at step 1, and that is a complete, successful project. Think of a journal as a bonus, not the goal.

1. Go to the Research Proposals page on Rainflower and read the open projects. Each one is a full proposal: the question, the method, the evidence you need, the timeline, the expense budget and the raindrop reward.
2. Pick one that fits your region, your interest and your time.
3. If you want a team, agree with your teammates first. Then press Accept and enter their Rainflower usernames and a team name.
4. Tell your parents or guardians what you are doing and when.
5. Create your free account on AKTI Survey and build your first survey draft in week 1.

You can withdraw from a project if life gets in the way, and come back to it later. What we ask is that you start honestly, collect carefully, and finish what you begin.

Browse open research papers (4)