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.
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LEARN MORE: Community Neuroscience: How to Build an Outreach Organization
NW Noggin: Art + Brains
Frontal lobes @ Franklin
Flexing frontal lobes at Floyd Light SUN
We are all neural networks
Join us in Chile in *2027*!
In 2027 we'll return to Valparaíso, Chile, home of the Humboldt squid! 🦑⚡️🧠🎨😃 Just like in 2025, and 2023, we'll explore how neurons carry information, and how research in Chile (involving the squid’s giant fused axons) informed 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 with Ciencia al Tiro, a local STEAM (STEM + Arts) outreach nonprofit.
LEARN MORE: LAS NEURONAS SON BACANES. LEARN MORE: Valparaiso - Arte y Cerebros en Chile LEARN MORE: ARTS AND BRAINS IN CHILE
Las neuronas son bacánes!
Jeff Leake and Bill Griesar of Northwest Noggin taught a NEW interdisciplinary neuroscience course in June and July of 2025 in the extraordinary art and brain research saturated coastal city of Valparaíso, Chile! LEARN MORE from 2025: Memoria, Arte y Cerebros en Chile! STAY TUNED: This program set to run…
Long skinny lightning in Siletz
“Sabía poco, pero al menos sabía eso: que nadie habla por los demás. Que aunque queramos contar historias ajenas terminamos siempre contando la historia propia”—Alejandro Zambra Storytelling and the brain Storytelling has a long history, and it’s a powerful and accepted method of teaching science. Research finds that curricula which…
Are “mini-brains” BRAINS?
Post by Austin Schubert, graduate student in the Neuroscience Graduate Program at OHSU. Austin is interested in the genetic and molecular basis of how the cerebral cortex develops in the context of health, disease, and evolution, and presented on brain organoids at NogginFest 2023. We all began as a single-celled…
Minibrains, Music, Estrogen, Art & Sleep!
NOGGINFEST 2023 😎 Brain Awareness! Music! Noggins! Art! “…the great events of the world take place in the brain…” — Oscar Wilde This was the SIXTH annual NogginFest – the largest student-run, accessible, all ages, public celebration of music, art, brain research, noggins and interdisciplinary neuroscience in the Pacific Northwest! Noggin’s…
Thank you for letting us touch your brains
This month we joined sophomore, junior and senior classrooms at David Douglas High School in Portland, Oregon, at the invitation of Psychology teachers Heather Murdock and Tracy Lind. We’d visited David Douglas in the past, before the pandemic, and both teachers reached out to arrange for our return! LEARN MORE:…
A Dive Into Habits
From Night Owls and Morning Birds to Motivating Those with ADHD Post by Sami Wagner, undergraduate in Psychology pursuing an Interdisciplinary Neuroscience minor at Portland State University. When I arrived at Hazelbrook Middle School for community outreach, I was a bit nervous because I was running a few minutes late. I have a bad habit…
Multilingual Brains!
Post by Nathalie Rios Carreon, undergraduate in Psychology pursuing an Interdisciplinary Neuroscience minor at Portland State University. I am a senior at Portland State University (PSU). I transferred to PSU from Chemeketa Community College (CCC). I went to CCC right after graduating from Woodburn High School. I was there on a soccer scholarship which covered…
Countering ACEs
Post by Becky Hunt, undergraduate in Psychology pursuing an Interdisciplinary Neuroscience minor at Portland State University. My outing with the fantastic NW Noggin team was my first extended in person social experience since before the COVID-19 pandemic. As someone who worked alone and attended online school for the past few years, witnessing the bright, curious…
Can music orchestrate emotional intelligence?
Post by Veronika Carranza, undergraduate in Psychology pursuing an Interdisciplinary Neuroscience minor at Portland State University. Why is music so timeless? Why do people still listen to music thought up by a child more than 200 years ago? Why do we learn the letters of the alphabet through song? Why are some parents so adamant…
Aspiring to Assist
Post by Cameron McGrew, undergraduate in Psychology pursuing an Interdisciplinary Neuroscience minor and a Chemistry minor at Portland State University. The sun shone brightly on a warm spring morning as I opened my eyes, and contemplated the day ahead. I thought about the breakfast I’d fix, the coffee I’d pour, and the class I’d join…
What is outreach like?
“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 Northwest Noggin undergraduate and graduate outreach volunteers are enthusiastic and informed, and regularly let knowledge serve by going places, making art, exploring brain research, sharing stories and listening to community questions and interests in urban and rural K-12 public schools, coffee shops, museums, correctional facilities, houseless youth nonprofits, research conferences, Congress and more! LEARN MORE @ What is outreach like?.