All students deserve access to field-based learning experiences where they can conduct investigations and collect data to answer their questions about the world. These opportunities are particularly important in the context of complex climate-related water issues that will increasingly dominate their futures. Unfortunately, these experiences are rare in Title 1 New Orleans schools due to a number of constraining factors that include time, money, administrative support, and experience. We designed the Puddles to Floods Summer Science Institute to remove these barriers by structuring the program as a 4-week summer school and teacher professional development intensive. We scaffolded field-based investigations to give teachers and their third and fourth grade students multiple opportunities to explore the phenomenon at the heart of the unit: Why did the same amount of rainfall cause their urban schoolyard to flood but not a more natural setting nearby? The program supported students in developing sophisticated and transferable understandings of the causes of flooding, an issue of central relevance to their lives in New Orleans, where urban stormwater flooding shapes daily life. By the end of the program, students identified as scientists and problem solvers who were capable of driving their own learning in the classroom and beyond.