NW Noggin is thrilled and honored to receive a grant from the Confederated Tribes of Grande Ronde, a sovereign Native American nation in north-central Oregon, for our art and neuroscience outreach proposal “Synapses & Stories:  Coyote, Grizzly and their Brains!”

We are invited to the Grande Ronde Tribal campus for a grant presentation ceremony with the Board of Trustees and Tribal Council on Wednesday, December 13.

UPDATE: Learn more at the link!

Synapses & Stories

WHAT: Spirit Mountain Community grant presentation ceremony

WHERE: Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde Community of Oregon Campus, Governance Building, 9615 Grand Ronde Road, Grand Ronde, OR 97347

WHEN: Wednesday, December 13, 2017, 1:30 – 3:00pm

LEARN MORE: The Grand Ronde Story

LEARN MORE: Oregon Encyclopedia; the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde

LEARN MORE: Grande Ronde Lesson Plan on Stories & Myths

The Grande Ronde seal, representing 27 confederated tribes (including the Umpqua, Molalla, Rogue River, Kalapuya, and Shasta), reminded us of a neuron’s cell body (or soma) with vivid feather dendrites, embodying a shared human drive to synapse and connect.

We crafted a neuron in the seal’s colors as a gift and thank you…

We will bring 12 Portland/Vancouver area undergraduates and graduates studying neuroscience and art to the Lincoln County School District this spring (potentially Toledo Elementary and Siletz Valley) for a series of three, day long visits aimed at making connections between figures in Grande Ronde tribal stories (including Coyote, Crow and Grizzly) and their relevant neuroanatomy…

Corvus Callosum by Sienna Morris

Many students struggle with academic achievement, and become disenchanted with school. There is tremendous regional and national need to develop academic programs and approaches that successfully engage “academic priority” students, and offer access to the social and economic benefits of further education. Our efforts to bring together “near peers,” including undergraduates in science and art, to collaborate with graduate students on creating novel, innovative, multidisciplinary methods of explaining complex ideas in neuroscience, exposes these students to scientists and artists at various stages of their careers.

Our volunteers will bring real brains, both animal and human, into the classroom, ask students what they know already about what parts of the brain do, participate in storytelling, and consider how various skills and characteristics relate to developing networks of neurons. We’ll engage in multiple art projects, including neuron building and brain maps, to allow students to explore these ideas further.

LEARN MORE:  Birds have primate-like numbers of neurons in the forebrain

We have done this before, successfully –   see Noggin Bloggin for details. Students will learn structure/function relationships, discover educational and career options in neuroscience and art, and get engaged in big questions about how our brains work and make us who we are.

Attending the ceremony 
Bill Griesar, PSU/OHSU/NW Noggin Neuroscience Coordinator
Joey Seuferling, Noggin Resource Council member
Sulema Rodriguez, PSU/NIH BUILD EXITO/Noggin Resource Council member