GROWING IN NETWORKS…
The Northwest Neuroscience Outreach Group: Growing in Networks (nwnoggin.org) is a collaborative all volunteer educational effort to enthuse and engage academic priority students and the general public in the study and practice of neuroscience and art.
And we’re a nonprofit!
Northwest Noggin received federal 501(c)(3) status on November 15, 2016. We have no paid staff (no paid anyone!), so your contributions let us purchase sheep brains, pipe cleaners, electrodes and clay for outreach, plus send our graduate and undergraduate volunteers from Portland State University, Oregon Health & Sciences University and other area institutions to multiple public schools, conferences and community events to effectively and innovatively communicate science.
Everyone at NW Noggin – everyone – is a volunteer.
LEARN MORE: Support NW Noggin with Amazon Smile!
We also welcome, value and depend on the significant contributions and volunteer efforts of dedicated individuals from academic institutions, arts organizations, professional associations, public school systems, and our vibrant Northwest community.
These partners have gone above and beyond to make art and science teaching and enrichment opportunities a reality in the Portland/Vancouver area.
Department of Psychology, Portland State University
Let Knowledge Serve!
We take the motto of this diverse urban campus, Oregon’s second largest public university, to heart! PSU’s undergraduates and graduates are among the most committed, fervent, passionate supporters of arts-integrated neuroscience outreach, mentoring and education through NW Noggin.
The Department of Psychology currently offers a concentration in Neuropsychology/Neuroscience, and they are almost ready, along with the departments of Biology and Speech & Hearing Sciences, to launch a new minor in Interdisciplinary Neuroscience! Networks of colorful pipe cleaner neurons (AND A GIANT BRAIN) hang in the main lobby.
The College of Liberal Arts & Sciences supports innovative #sciart outreach (they co-sponsored our last Noggin briefing to the U.S. Congress), and recognizes the value and effectiveness of cross-disciplinary, multi-institutional collaboration. In winter 2018, the University Studies department welcomed a new Freshman Inquiry (FRINQ) theme course sequence, co-taught by Noggin co-founders Jeff Leake and Bill Griesar, on the Neuroscience of Creativity and Learning.
LEARN MORE: The Art and Science of the Brain: NW Noggin makes neuroscience fun
The NIH BUILD EXITO program at PSU is a research training program that supports undergraduates on their path to become scientific researchers. PSU received a major grant from the National Institutes of Health to serve as a center for innovation to help undergraduates, including those from diverse backgrounds, be successful in biomedical research careers.
Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) serves as the research intensive partner, providing crucial support, guidance, and expertise as PSU develops and implements EXITO. BUILD EXITO scholars regularly participate in Noggin outreach, and the program contributes significant supplies!
LEARN MORE: Addressing TBI through research, outreach & art
LEARN MORE: Building Connections through Mentoring
PSU Neuroscience Club
The Neuroscience Club at PSU (their Facebook page is here) won a SALPie (Student Activities and Leadership Programs) award in 2014 as the “Student Organization of the Year,” and again as the 2017 “Service Organization of the Year.” Bill Griesar of PSU Psychology, and NW Noggin, was awarded the “Faculty/Community Partner of the Year” SALPie Award in 2016.
LEARN MORE FROM PSU NEURO: Noggins & Noodles @ SfN!
The STEM Education and Equity Institute at Portland State University
The STEM Education and Equity Institute at Portland State University is committed to creating and sustaining a student-centered welcoming environment dedicated to authentic excellence, that promotes student success, engagement and well-being.
LEARN MORE: Student Outreach Opportunities
Department of Behavioral Neuroscience, Oregon Health & Science University
Vollum Institute/OHSU Neuroscience Graduate Program
OHSU Brain Institute
Where teaching, healing and discovery come together.
Oregon Brain Institute founder (and outreach inspiration) Bobby Heagerty at Powell’s City of Books
LEARN MORE: OHSU Brain Institute’s Bobby Heagerty receives educator award from Society for Neuroscience
Both OBI, OHSU Neuroscience and Behavioral Neuroscience help make the Pacific Northwest a “neuroscience powerhouse,” in the words of Oregon Congressman (and House Neuroscience caucus co-chair) Earl Blumenauer. OHSU’s enthusiastic graduate students are always eager to inform the broader community about exciting brain research happening on Pill Hill.
“Neuroscience outreach in Portlandia is truly second to none.” – Bita Moghaddam, Behavioral Neuroscience, OHSU
And THANK YOU Eileen Torres and Sydney Boutros of the Raber Lab at OHSU for also re-charging our CaroSafe brain juice for outreach!
The OHSU Brain Institute brings internationally recognized neuroscience researchers to Portland’s Newmark Theater every spring. We are grateful to OBI for inviting our undergraduate and graduate NW Noggin volunteers to hear these speakers, and present brains and art in the Newmark lobby!
LEARN MORE: OBI Brain Awareness Lectures
Alliance for Visible Diversity in Science @ OHSU
“We focus on one central mission: to increase visible diversity within the Graduate Studies programs at Oregon Health and Science University by recruiting, retaining, and most importantly, supporting graduate students, postdoctoral scholars, staff, and faculty members from underrepresented backgrounds.”
LEARN MORE: AVDS Calendar of Events
Oregon National Primate Research Center
An exceptional contributor to neuroscience research and education in the Northwest. We always look forward to introducing K-12 students and undergraduates to Diana Gordon, their irrepressible outreach coordinator, who provides insightful tours and arranges panels of experts to answer student questions.
Portland Alcohol Research Center at OHSU and Portland VA Medical Center
The Portland Alcohol Research Center investigates genes that enhance risk of or convey protection against alcohol use problems. The Center’s goal is to help find new therapies to improve treatment and prevention.
Mark Rutledge-Gorman at PARC has been a tireless supporter of STEAM education work in the community, and a tremendous friend of NW Noggin!
We are indebted to PARC for providing many of our pipe cleaners, nitrile gloves, paper, electrodes, sheep brains and clay for innovative outreach on the brain and behavior!
American Brain Coalition
NW Noggin is a nonprofit partner of the American Brain Coalition, an organization comprised of leading professional neurological, psychological, and psychiatric associations and patient groups, and an exceptional collaborator in both our 2017 and 2016 outreach efforts in Washington DC!
We were also highly honored to attend the Obama White House Frontiers conference with Katie Sale, the Executive Director, in fall 2016.
LEARN MORE: A Coalition of Noggins & Brains!
LEARN MORE: From classrooms to Congress!
LEARN MORE: STEAMing to DC!
Society for Neuroscience
The Society for Neuroscience (SfN) is the world’s largest organization of scientists and physicians devoted to understanding the brain and nervous system. The nonprofit organization, founded in 1969, now has nearly 38,000 members in more than 90 countries and over 130 chapters worldwide.
LEARN MORE: NW Noggin @ Society for Neuroscience
Noggin regularly presents posters at the annual meeting, and in 2017, 2018 and 2019 SfN awarded complimentary conference attendance for our undergraduate volunteers! In 2017 we presented at the conference, in DC area public schools, and to the Neuroscience and STEAM caucuses in the U.S. House of Representatives!
LEARN MORE: From classrooms to Congress!
LEARN MORE: Serving 700 students at SfN!
LEARN MORE: #brains2DC!
NW Noggin delivered the keynote address on Brain Awareness at the SfN annual conference in San Diego in 2018, and also brought volunteers, brains and art to San Diego Public Schools.
LEARN MORE: Synapsing in San Diego @ SfN!
In 2019 we brought real (extra!) human brains and art projects to the Society for Neuroscience Brain Awareness Campaign Event – the first time this happened in the 50 year history of the organization!
LEARN MORE: Noggins in Chicago!
In 2020 we pioneered virtual pandemic outreach and presented two global webinars with SfN. LEARN MORE: Noggin @ SfN.
DANA Foundation
The Dana Foundation is the originator of the annual Brain Awareness Week, and a leading philanthropic organization that promotes neuroscience research through grants, publications, and educational programs.
NW Noggin is a proud partner of the Foundation, and was one of three international organizations profiled by Dana during Brain Awareness Week in 2017. NW Noggin also offered the keynote address at the Dana-sponsored brain awareness event during the annual Society for Neuroscience conference in 2018.
LEARN MORE: SfN18 Celebrates Brain Awareness
LEARN MORE: NW Noggin: Interview with the Dana Foundation!
LEARN MORE: Community Neuroscience: How to Build an Outreach Organization
In 2021 NW Noggin was awarded a Brain Awareness Outreach Grant for our fourth annual NOGGINFEST!
LEARN MORE: NW Noggin awarded Dana Foundation Brain Awareness Grant!
LEARN MORE: JOIN US: Noggin Fest 2021!
Regional Arts and Culture Council
The Regional Arts & Culture Council (RACC) receives funding from a variety of public and private partners to serve artists, arts organizations, schools and residents throughout Clackamas, Multnomah, and Washington counties. Noggin was awarded a RACC grant in 2014.
NW Noggin was also recognized with a 2018 RACC “Juice” award for “out of the ordinary” community engagement – “for giving children a unique opportunity to learn about neuroscience and the brain using nontraditional, artistic methods that make the information more accessible and impactful!”
LEARN MORE: Ten Ways to Support the Arts (& Science!)
P:ear: Creatively Mentoring Homeless Youth
NW Noggin volunteers LOVE collaborating with this critical community center for services and support for homeless youth. P:ear provides a warm, welcoming, arts-filled educational space in downtown Portland, filled with caring staff and volunteers for young people, many of whom lack access to safe housing.
NW Noggin was honored to serve as the 2020 Community Partner for p:ear. P:ear was also a valued co-sponsor of our briefing to the U.S. House Neuroscience and STEAM caucuses in 2017!
LEARN MORE: Noggin @ P:ear
LEARN MORE: Seeing us all through research & art
LEARN MORE: Homelessness and the Brain
LEARN MORE: From classrooms to Congress!
Latino Network
The Latino Network is a Latino-led education organization, grounded in culturally-specific practices and services, that lifts up youth and families to reach their full potential.
NW Noggin is thrilled to partner with this effective nonprofit community organization which shares our interests in improving community livability, fostering civic participation, and preparing young people for educational and life success. We are also committed to translating posts into Spanish.
LEARN MORE: Latino Network Learning & Lobes
LEARN MORE: Tres Escuelas en un Día!
LEARN MORE: Basal ganglia @ Beaumont!
Kúkátónón Children’s African Dance Troupe
Kúkátónón’s mission is to inspire confidence, commitment and vitality among the children in the dance troupe, their families and communities; and to broaden awareness of African and African American cultural traditions throughout Oregon. We love Executive Director Krystal Ngene and Operations Manager Danielle Ali-Cassim! NW Noggin is honored to work with this high energy partner on Velo Cult presentations, and other efforts to connect important community traditions with STEM.
LEARN MORE: Kúkátónón Children’s African Dance Troupe
LEARN MORE: At Velo: Parkinson’s, Dance & Mistakes
Portland Art Museum
The museum, the 7th oldest in the United States, is another extraordinary partner in furthering education about both brain science and art.
Noggin collaborated with PAM on the popular “Seeing Nature” exhibit (we contributed panels with text for a “Nature of Seeing” gallery which accompanied this striking collection of landscape paintings from the Paul G. Allen Collection), and PAM was also a co-sponsor of our Brain + Art briefings for the U.S. House of Representatives in both 2016 and 2017.
LEARN MORE: Portland Art Museum
LEARN MORE: The Nature of Seeing @ the Portland Art Museum
LEARN MORE: The Nature of Seeing: Noggins and Art
LEARN MORE: STEAMing to DC!
LEARN MORE: Jeff Leake Joins Teacher Advisory Council @ PAM!
LEARN MORE: One landscape contains the other…
LEARN MORE: Noggin @ Portland Art Museum
HOPE Partnership at Janus Youth Programs
The Hope Partnership is a collaboration between the Oregon Youth Authority and Janus Youth Programs. Under the direction of their extraordinary Program Coordinator Kathleen Fullerton, Hope provides classes and community networking opportunities for young people to help build self-confidence and the skills needed to transform their lives.
LEARN MORE: Hope Partnership unlocks a future for incarcerated youths
Hope has arranged for multiple artists, musicians, activists, tradespeople – and neuroscience outreach volunteers – to visit with, listen to, and enrich the experiences of incarcerated youth at MacLaren.
LEARN MORE: Myelinating @ MacLaren!
LEARN MORE: All is in motion, is growing, is yo
LEARN MORE: Corrections, Bias & Brains
BioGift
A whole body donation and surgical education center in Portland, Oregon, which offered human brains for outreach!
Select Noggin volunteers have spent memorable hours here learning and exploring, and absorbing understanding, knowledge and insight from Michael, Miguel and Andrew into how our bodies look, feel and function.
We remain awestruck by these experiences, which made us more effective educators, and are grateful for the generosity of those who donate their bodies to clinical and basic research, education and outreach.
LEARN MORE: A BioGift of Brains
LEARN MORE: BioGifting brains
LEARN MORE: Adventure A-Head
LEARN MORE: Securing Brains @ BioGift
Kings College London
Kings College London is a leader in arts-integrated STEM outreach, recently launching a new initiative called the Health, Arts and Biosciences Lab (HAB Lab) which “aims to bring artists, students and scientists together to explore the entitled themes in a new space at our London Bridge based campus.”
Brains on the floor: According to Leigh and Richard, “…we tried your giant brain map at our workshop!” LEARN MORE: NW Noggin Brain Map
Painted neurons: the #SfNRocks art activity developed by Leigh and Richard
We love connecting and sharing outreach ideas with Leigh Wilson and Richard Wingate, both developmental neuroscientists at KCL. Richard is also the editor-in-chief of BrainFacts.org.
At the 2019 Society for Neuroscience annual meeting in Chicago 🙂
LEARN MORE: Noggins & Kings
LEARN MORE: Meet Richard Wingate, Editor-in-Chief of BrainFacts.org
Providence School Outreach Program
NW Noggin is honored to bring the high school students we volunteer with to Providence St. Vincent Hospital, to view live brain surgeries and learn directly from health care providers about their careers!
Neurosurgeon Dr. Vivek Deshmukh describing an aneurysm procedure…
Providence BRAIN WATCH is an extraordinary, innovative outreach program which “connects career seekers of all ages to health care careers through experiential learning,” and “encourages career seekers to explore the many career opportunities that exist within health care. Not only does this help them make better-informed career decisions, but it often motivates and inspires them on their own career pathway.”
LEARN MORE: What is brain surgery like?
LEARN MORE: Living brain, successful surgery
LEARN MORE: Brain Watch Wednesday!
LEARN MORE: Skyview, Fort Vancouver students observe brain surgery
Legacy Research Institute
LEARN MORE: A Legacy of Links
Portland Public Schools (PPS)
Vancouver Public Schools (VPS)
IRCO – SUN PROGRAM
SUN stands for Schools Uniting Neighborhoods. The SUN Service System helps our youth have the opportunity to develop intellectually, socially and emotionally. Like three strands of a rope, these intertwined capacities strengthen later functioning into adulthood.
NW Noggin has partnered with SUN community schools on multiple occasions, reaching thousands with brains and art. One example (more at Noggin Bloggin): Cellphones & Receptors at Franklin SUN
MESA (Mathematics, Engineering, Science Achievement)
Caldera
Caldera is a catalyst for the transformation of underserved youth through innovative, year-round art and environmental programs. Caldera serves Oregon youth from both urban and rural communities with limited access to educational and economic resource opportunities. Our programs nurture individual creativity to ignite self-expression and transform the way young people engage in their lives, families, and communities. Jeff Leake of NW Noggin has run brain-related arts programs at their central Oregon campus, and at nearby Redmond Public Schools.
LEARN MORE: Caldera Arts and Brains in central Oregon
Fort George
Extraordinary Pacific Northwest brewery, renowned for Stout Month and rich, flavorful beer. NW Noggin has brought brains and art to this Astoria, Oregon landmark at the mouth of the Columbia River, to talk about the neuroscience of alcohol.
LEARN MORE: Astoria Ales & Ideas: Your Brain in a Vortex
And we are hugely honored to receive Fort support (and beer!) for our annual NogginFest celebration! THANK YOU!!!!
LEARN MORE: NOGGINFEST!
Medcure
Another Portland-based whole body donation and surgical education center. We thank them for their embrace of arts-integrated neuroscience outreach – and for brains! Learn more about their work and support for community engagement here: Memories @ MedCure
Pacific Northwest College of Art
Make+Think+Code – under its original Founder and former Executive Director Nandini Ranganathan – was a technology-focused lab at the Pacific Northwest College of Art that brought together members of Portland’s creative, tech, civic, and educational communities to explore the powerful role that creativity and technology play in the search for imaginative and impactful solutions to complex and urgent problems.
3D printed brain from MRI data created by PDX 3DP Lab Monthly Meetup
NW Noggin was excited to partner with this vibrant program, and appreciated access to their extraordinary facilities and a shared eagerness to innovate and engage with our community, and our world. We’re keeping in touch with Nandini, who is busy developing MTC 2.0!
LEARN MORE: Make + Think + Code
LEARN MORE: Make+Think+Code’s Executive Director and Founder, Nandini Ranganathan, speaks at TEDxPortland
Velo Cult
By far our favorite bike shop pub anywhere in the world ❤️ We miss you 🙂
LEARN MORE: Noggin @ Velo Cult
Youth Engaged in Science
YES! Youth Engaged in Science is an outreach program started by the Fair Neuroimaging Lab (now at the University of Minnesota) aimed at exposing underrepresented students to science, research & STEM-related careers. YES! aims to get kids excited about science, and educate families about mental health and the importance of community participation in biomedical research, with the hopes of increasing enrollment of underrepresented populations in clinical studies.
Noggin has partnered with YES!, bringing K-8 students from Portland and Vancouver public schools into OHSU imaging labs, and graduate students and post-docs from OHSU into public classrooms.
LEARN MORE: Synapsing with Summer @ SAIL!
Rewire Neuroscience
Rewire Neuroscience is a Portland startup founded by a former Noggin volunteer and Brain Board member that strives to improve the speed, accuracy, and reproducibility of biomedical research using artificial intelligence. They offer an array of lab equipment, ranging from behavioral testing equipment to remote freezer monitoring. Rewire Neuroscience is dedicated to empowering the future of neuroscience by supporting the next generation of scientists with affordable, cutting-edge technologies.
LEARN MORE: RewireNeuro.com
*Students of Neuroscience*, WSU Vancouver
WSU Vancouver is the regional branch campus of Washington State University, home to a currently shrinking Department of Neuroscience. Their graduate and undergraduate students are terrific, and always thrilled to leave their sheltered, administration heavy suburban environs to join NW Noggin for innovative engagement in diverse communities. A few of their faculty claim to “#scitalk” (mostly with each other, at overpriced conferences), but their students are eager to #scicomm (joyously!) in real world settings through actual visits with K-12 kids and the public at large.
WSU students are excited to engage in innovative community outreach…
At WSUV we were told (ridiculously) that art isn’t “useful” – and to avoid highlighting volunteers from other area institutions (!!). Innovative teaching and outreach were cut, while one football coach takes home $4 million in Washington state public tax dollars every year!
“I tell my students, ‘…just remember that your real job is that if you are free, you need to free somebody else. If you have some power, then your job is to empower somebody else. This is not just a grab-bag candy game.” –#ToniMorrison
Ugh – here it was all about grabbing the candy 😝 Sooooo happy to be free 🙂
LEARN MORE: BioGifting brains
LEARN MORE: Protecting Noggins @ the Newmark
LEARN MORE: Youth football changes nerve fibers in brain
Appallingly, WSU’s “Center for Community Engagement” offered a “community service award” for a student who completed court-mandated community service for robbery and assault. Newspeak details below.
HOW NOT TO SUPPORT OUTREACH: Washington State Player Gets Community Service Award For Completing Court-Mandated Hours