Where is NW Noggin?
Our innovative graduate and undergraduate art and neuroscience volunteers are Regional Arts & Culture Council (RACC) Juice award-winning developing experts in science communication, synapsing for science, and teaching in schools, theaters, museums, urban and rural communities, homeless youth centers, breweries, correctional facilities, Congress and bike shop pubs! For more information see NOGGIN BLOGGIN.NW Noggin is a locally sourced, 501(c)(3) ALL-VOLUNTEER shoestring nonprofit organization. Your tax-deductible contribution supports the purchase of sheep brains, pipe cleaners, electrodes and clay for innovative, arts-integrated outreach, and helps send volunteers from local universities (including Portland State University, OHSU, and other area institutions) to public school classrooms, conferences and free community events.
DONATE HERE!
LEARN MORE: Community Neuroscience: How to Build an Outreach Organization
NW Noggin: Art + Brains
What Happens to a Young Brain on Opioids?
Mindful Research
Join us in Chile in 2025!
Please join us SUMMER 2025 in Valparaíso, Chile - the home of the Humboldt squid! 🦑⚡️🧠🎨😃 We'll explore how neurons carry information, and how research in Chile (involving the squid’s giant fused axons) led to our understanding of the electrical signaling that links our experiences to the world. We’ll visit laboratories to examine the rich history and exciting present of research at the Universidad de Chile en Valparaíso, make art (including arpilleras, woven depictions of experience that help people express challenging memories and preserve them for accountability), and contribute to community engagement through Ciencia al Tiro, a local STEAM (STEM + Arts) outreach nonprofit. We may even create a public mural celebrating famed neurology patient Phineas Gage, who lived for several years after his infamous accident - and drove a stagecoach - in the city of Valpo!
LEARN MORE: LAS NEURONAS SON BACANES.
Neurons in Minecraft & More!
We spent the last two weeks talking brain research and considering deep, challenging questions from 4th graders in Portland Public Schools. LEARN MORE: A crayon in Homer’s brain And the students at Sunnyside Environmental School also made their own brain cells! Teachers Jeremy Thomas and Asa Gervich shared the following…
A crayon in Homer’s brain
We love questions! Some of the BEST questions come from students in public schools, who are fascinated by neuroscience research, and eager to share their own thoughts, interests, artwork and ideas about our brains! Wait a minute: just how did that crayon get in?! LEARN MORE: HOMЯ episode, The Simpsons…
Internet, Music, and Activism During Crisis — LGBTQ Communities in 2020
Post by Danny Leister-Gray, Psychology & Honors College, Portland State University “History isn’t something you look back at and say it was inevitable, it happens because people make decisions that are sometimes very impulsive and of the moment, but those moments are cumulative realities.” — Marsha P. Johnson 2020: A…
NogginFest 2021: Threshold Potential!
Post by Carli Cox, undergraduate in Psychology/Rosenbaum scholar at Portland State University, NW Noggin Resource Council member for PSU, NogginFest organizer! Our first ever virtual NogginFest went off without a hitch! We had so much fun sharing our love of neuroscience, research, art, and music last Saturday night. We were…
Nogginfest Art Auction
Nogginfest Art Auction! Want to own stunning original art? We have that and more this year at our Nogginfest art auction! We’re very excited to have work from these local artists featured in our auction. BID HERE: NogginFest 2021 Art Auction (through 3/20/21)! LEARN MORE: JOIN US @ NOGGINFEST! Sienna…
If you like be akamai, make sure you get choke shut eye
Post by Greyson Moore from Portland State University and Aaron Eisen from the National University of Natural Medicine and Oregon Health & Science University As an icy snowstorm blanketed much of North America, including Northwest Oregon, our informed and enthusiastic Noggin volunteers were excited to visit (virtually) the warm Hawaiian…
The US wants to increase sleep deprivation and winter misery
Post written by NW Noggin Brain Board member Kindra Crick Finding it difficult to wake up after we ‘spring’ forward to Daylight Saving Time? The US Congress has plans to end this biannual ritual. But if we lock the clock to Daylight Saving Time as Congress hopes to, our problems…
Desperately Seeking Rasa
Post written by New/Mixed media artist Kit S. Carlton. Kit also joined OHSU Behavioral Neuroscientist Sydney Boutros for a collaborative Noggin presentation in October 2019: Memory, Poetry, Brains. Going places! In the first two weeks of February, a team of neuroscientists, students, educators, artists and classrooms of kiddos converged to contemplate…
Ho brah, he lolo maoli kēlā!
Post written by Catherine Caine (2015 Hawaii State Teacher of the Year/National Finalist), Bill Griesar – and the amazing 5th graders at Waikiki School! Going places 🌴 As a snowstorm descended on Northwest Oregon, our informed and enthusiastic Noggin volunteers were thrilled to travel (virtually) to the sunny Hawaiian island…
Uploading your brain from Vancouver
We love visiting biology classrooms at Fort Vancouver High! We’ve enjoyed many welcome opportunities to head north across the mighty Columbia to meet so many thoughtful, engaged and insightful students over the years, and teachers Coreyanne Russell and James Cederstrom are terrific collaborators and valued friends. LEARN MORE: Why do…
Synapsing in San Diego
“I’ve learned that you shouldn’t go through life with a catcher’s mitt on both hands. You need to be able to throw something back.” ―Maya Angelou.
Our AMAZING volunteers organized the largest all ages Art & Neuroscience Festival in the Pacific Northwest! We offered live bands, science-inspired art, neuroscience research presentations, and the chance to ask questions and examine real brains! The fifth annual Noggin Fest helped send more young scientists and artists to the Society for Neuroscience conference in San Diego - and into San Diego Unified Public Schools! LEARN MORE @ Brains Beyond SfN!.