Pre-K, Fish and Logger Lobes!

Our all-volunteer Northwest Noggineers hit the road this spring, leaving busy labs and lecture halls for the wet and stormy mouth of the Columbia River, to learn from bar pilots, cardiologists, graduate students in neuroscience, curious pre-K kids and hundreds of engaged 9th – 12th graders with challenging questions from…

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The Art & Science of Nostalgia

Post by Hosanna Broderick, undergraduate in Speech & Hearing Sciences pursuing an Interdisciplinary Neuroscience minor at Portland State University. I was born in San Francisco and though I grew up north of the bay, I spent a lot of time in the city during my adolescent and young adult years. I experience profound nostalgia…

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The Magic of Music

Post by Jadyn Harris, undergraduate in Psychology pursuing an Interdisciplinary Neuroscience minor at Portland State University. Jadyn is a welcome and regular contributor to outreach visits through Northwest Noggin. “Perhaps the most important problem in neuroscience is understanding what it means to be human, and music is an essential part of this.” — Robert Zatorre…

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How did we get the brain?

Post by Mina Sattari, undergraduate in Psychology pursuing an Interdisciplinary Neuroscience minor at Portland State University. Mina is a welcome and regular contributor to outreach visits through Northwest Noggin. This winter I’ve had the pleasure of participating in outreach at Sacajawea Elementary School in Vancouver, Washington and at Leodis V. McDaniel High School, Hosford Middle School…

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Brain Awareness for ALL

We started Northwest Noggin as parents in 2012, exploring summer educational opportunities offered by the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI), “Saturday Academy” and other nonprofits. These programs were prohibitively expensive, and with two kids each and limited income they were not accessible options for either Noggin co-founder at…

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When I Grow Up: Learning, Memory, and LTP

Post by Asha Powell-Stormberg, undergraduate in Science pursuing an Interdisciplinary Neuroscience minor at Portland State University. Asha is a welcome and regular contributor to outreach visits through Northwest Noggin. Noggin @ Ron Russell Middle School I recently joined my fellow Noggin volunteers at Ron Russell Middle School in the David Douglas Public School District…

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Wrestling with Expectations, and Brains

Post by Julian Rodriguez, undergraduate in Psychology pursuing an Interdisciplinary Neuroscience minor at Portland State University. Julian is a welcome, regular contributor to outreach through NW Noggin, and is currently seeking grants to support arts integration in STEM. When we arrive in K-12 classrooms in the Pacific Northwest with our real human noggins we pretty…

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You belong in research

Post by Kayla McDaniel, undergraduate in Psychology pursuing an Interdisciplinary Neuroscience minor at Portland State University. Kayla is a full-time Research Assistant working in Dr. Miranda Lim’s Sleep & Health Applied Research Program (SHARP) laboratory at the Portland Veteran’s Administration Medical Center and OHSU. “We must have perseverance and above all confidence in ourselves. We must believe…

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