The People's Lab · A Public Evidence Studio

Your questions.
Your methods.
Our world.

Turn the questions your community lives with into evidence people can use. An immersive introduction to rigorous research, built for scholars and the public.

Explore the immersion Bring the Lab to your institution

Inquiry · Discovery · Public Impact

8 hours of active inquiryProposed immersion, built around practice.

A question becomes a planDesign, examine, interpret, communicate.

A public purposeMethods that connect scholarship to life.

An I AM Research Institute Immersion

The power to ask.
The tools to know.

Whose experience gets counted? How do we distinguish a compelling story from a supported finding? What would it take to study the problem differently?

The People's Lab brings people into those decisions. Our proposed immersion develops practical research skills through real questions about health, racism and disparities, technology, energy, education, and justice. Participants learn to examine how evidence is produced—and how it can serve their communities.

The People's Lab — A Public Evidence Studio

Knowledge belongs in public life

Inspired by traditions of community education and collective action, the Lab pairs public purpose with disciplined inquiry. Curiosity opens the door. Methods give us somewhere to go.

The work beneath the idea

Make the question
strong enough to study.

Learn the decisions that make research credible, useful, and accountable to the people it concerns.

Frame with precision.

Define the problem, examine existing evidence, and turn a broad concern into a researchable question.

Build with rigor.

Choose an appropriate design. Consider sampling, measurement, consent, bias, and the limits of available data.

Share with consequence.

Interpret findings carefully and communicate what the evidence supports, what remains uncertain, and what comes next.

Inside the proposed eight-hour immersion

Learn it.
Test it.
Put it to work.

Four connected studios move participants from a question to a short public evidence brief. Facilitated exercises, small-group critique, and guided analysis make the methods tangible.

Curriculum in development. Eight instructional hours may be delivered across multiple sessions; breaks are scheduled separately. Dates, tuition, and delivery formats will be announced after pilot planning.

Hours 1–2The Question Studio

Identify whose experience is missing, compare what is already known, and define the question, population, and outcome.Working output: a focused research question and evidence map.

Hours 3–4The Design Studio

Compare surveys, interviews, observation, and existing-data approaches. Examine sampling, measurement, ethics, and feasibility.Working output: a study-design canvas with an ethics checklist.

Hours 5–6The Evidence Studio

Work with a guided teaching dataset or sample qualitative material. Practice descriptive analysis or coding, inspect missingness, and distinguish association from causation.Working output: a preliminary finding with its limitations.

Hours 7–8The Public Impact Studio

Translate the exercise into a clear brief for a defined audience. Give and receive critique, identify unanswered questions, and propose a responsible next step.Working output: a one-page public evidence brief.

Illustrative scene of researchers discussing evidence at a research fair

What participants work toward

Leave with something
you can build on.

A first research portfolio: practical exercises you can revisit with a mentor, share with a team, or use to shape your next inquiry.

A focused questionA problem defined clearly enough to investigate.

A study-design canvasA method, population, measures, and ethical considerations.

An evidence exerciseA guided analysis or coding exercise with explicit limits.

A public evidence briefA concise explanation for a real audience.

More people at the evidence table

Find your way into the Lab.

For learners

Your experience can shape a better question.

Undergraduate, graduate, and professional students; emerging scholars; practitioners; and community members curious about research. Start with a question and a willingness to examine it.

Express learner interest

For institutions

Bring methods into your community.

Explore a hosted cohort for your college, university, organization, or research team. Collaborate on the audience, teaching cases, delivery format, and learning assessment.

Discuss hosting a cohort

For supporters

Make rigorous learning more accessible.

Explore support for participant access, teaching materials, facilitation, and pilot evaluation. Agree on milestones and reporting while preserving curriculum and research independence.

Explore supporting the Lab

Before you step inside.

Do I need research experience?

The proposed introductory immersion is designed to welcome people with different levels of experience. Pilot prerequisites and any required software will be specified before registration opens.

Will the immersion offer academic credit?

Academic credit is not currently confirmed. Any credit-bearing offering would require approval and an agreement with a participating institution. The Lab is an I AM initiative; it is not an ICPSR or University of Michigan program.

Can we study racism and disparities?

Yes. These are central areas of inquiry. Teaching cases can examine structural conditions, unequal outcomes, how categories are measured, and whose experiences are represented in the evidence.

Is registration open?

The Lab is in development. You can express learner interest, discuss hosting a pilot, or explore support through the Institute's contact page. Confirmed dates, fees, and registration details will be published when available.

Bring your question.
Build what comes next.

Start a Lab conversation

The power to ask.The tools to know.

Make the questionstrong enough to study.