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
Snapshots of Schizophrenia
LTP in La Grande
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. APPLY HERE (PSU): Valparaiso - Arte y Cerebros en Chile APPLY HERE (NON-PSU): ARTS AND BRAINS IN CHILE
Learning with Light
Post by Bradley Marxmiller, undergraduate in Biology and Interdisciplinary Neuroscience at Portland State University. Bradley also wrote this introductory post: How do you find a job in a lab? When I finally secured funding and a position doing neuroscience research, it felt like a huge accomplishment. However, more than a goal or accomplishment, it is…
Nostalgia and BRAINS!
Post by Grace Taylor, undergraduate Psychology major and interdisciplinary neuroscience minor at Portland State University. This spring, Grace returned to her former classroom at Southridge High School in Beaverton, Oregon as a TA for the IB Biology class. Nostalgia at Southridge High For my Neuroscience minor outreach I spent time at…
“What makes people struggle?”
Post by Zoie Harpole, undergraduate in Psychology and Interdisciplinary Neuroscience at Portland State University. Zoie has joined multiple outreach visits through nwnoggin.org. As a student working towards my degree in psychology and interdisciplinary neuroscience at PSU, I have had the wonderful opportunity to work with Northwest Noggin over the past…
What it’s like to work in a computational lab and opportunities for entering into research
A research perspective piece by Nancy MacKenzie, undergraduate in Biomedical Physics and Interdisciplinary Neuroscience at Portland State University How did I get here? I am in the final year of my biomedical physics BS and minor in interdisciplinary neuroscience at PSU. I am also a BUILD EXITO scholar. I have…
“Branches of the same tree”
Post by Yasaman Farhand, undergraduate in Science and Interdisciplinary Neuroscience at Portland State University. Yasaman has contributed to multiple outreach visits to K-12 public classrooms and at the annual NogginFest through nwnoggin.org. “I like crossing the imaginary boundaries people set up between different fields – it’s very refreshing.” — Maryam Mirzakhani…
Hope through Change
Post by Tira Gaston and Britta Harbury, undergraduates in Psychology and Interdisciplinary Neuroscience at Portland State University, and Bill Griesar. Tira and Britta have participated in multiple outreach visits through nwnoggin.org. This week, NW Noggin returned to the amazing Bridges to Pathways Residential Drug and Alcohol Treatment Center in historic…
The Classroom is like a Brain
Post by Lauren Kuiper, undergraduate in Psychology and Interdisciplinary Neuroscience at Portland State University. “The brain struggling to understand the brain is society trying to explain itself.” — Colin Blakemore The time we have spent in the classrooms at various elementary schools in the Portland and Vancouver area has been a…
How do you find a job in a lab?
Post by Bradley Marxmiller, undergraduate in Biology and Interdisciplinary Neuroscience at Portland State University. Bradley followed up this post with more details on his experience in Dr. Atheir Abbas’s lab at the Portland VA Hospital/OHSU: Learning with Light. The most common question I get from fellow students interested in science…
We love SUN!
At Northwest Noggin we got our start way back in 2012 with our first all volunteer summer program. We were poorly paid adjuncts in neuroscience and art, and programs like these were out of reach for our own kids. Portland’s huge Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI) ran popular…
Awestruck and Humbled Amazement
Post by Annabella (Bella) Showerman, undergraduate Psychology major and interdisciplinary neuroscience minor at Portland State University. Many who aspire to study the brain are fascinated with what makes us who we are and why we do the things that we do. I have always been drawn to neuroscience for this very…
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!.