Art and Brains in Ashland

Northwest Noggin presents:  five talented artists from PNCA made a five hour drive to southern Oregon, to introduce arts projects they had developed during collaborative summer outreach with Psychology and Neuroscience students from PSU, WSU Vancouver and OHSU, that offer insight into how our brains work…

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Rebecca Carlisle, Mareika Glenn, Ivy Loughborough, Kathryn MacAnalley, and Carrie Ann Miyamoto joined Jeff Leake, Bill Griesar and PNCA Science instructor Mallory Pratt at Southern Oregon State University, to present a two hour STEAM workshop at the Oregon Arts Education Association conference…

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Bill began by introducing NW Noggin, and the many varied places, including public schools, homeless youth organizations, bike repair shop/pubs, breweries, theaters, art museums, and countless other formal and informal settings where we’ve taught since beginning our multidisciplinary outreach efforts in 2012…

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Jeff discussed specific tips and suggestions concerning the value and practice of arts integration in STEM classrooms, and Rebecca explained how Next Generation Science Standards and National Core Arts Standards could be addressed with arts-integrated lessons that engage, motivate, enthuse and effectively educate students…

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OAEA Conference slides 2015 FINAL

Then Kat and Mareika led a table of arts educators in designing their own imaginative creatures, and the nervous systems they’d need to survive and thrive…

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Ivy and Carrie led a second group of teachers, who created vibrant saturated paintings, that when stared at provoked perceptual after-images of complementary colors.  Aspects of visual neurophysiology, particularly the role of cone photoreceptors, were brought to life…

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Of course, the opportunity to personally examine the organ of creativity itself, and compare the brains of several species, was another engaging aspect of our workshop at OAEA… 🙂

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Another compelling demonstration of the educational value of working across disciplines…

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