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
Myelinating @ MacLaren!
Color on the Noggin!
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
Dreaming of Better Sleep for Children with Down Syndrome
Post by Citlaly Vazquez, undergraduate majoring in Public Health Clinical Science and minoring in Psychology and Interdisciplinary Neuroscience at Portland State University. How did I get here? I am a senior majoring in Public Health Clinical Science and minoring in Psychology and Interdisciplinary Neuroscience at Portland State University. I am…
Is memory physical?
We love visiting 6th graders at Portland’s Hosford Middle School, and have done so now for multiple years! Returning again and again, with new students, new volunteers, different weather, different brain specimens and newly crafted pipe cleaner neurons and glia, in pre-pandemic, raging-pandemic and current pandemic conditions – has deepened…
We are all neural networks
Northwest Noggin was thrilled to receive an invitation from the Portland Art Museum, the seventh oldest museum in the United States, to present a workshop on neural networks at their free community “Evening for Educators” event in February, 2023. LEARN MORE: Evening for Educators: Hito Steyerl: This is the Future…
Your Inner Worm Bin
Post by Kristin Preston, Northwest Noggin outreach participant and undergraduate in Psychology pursuing an Interdisciplinary Neuroscience minor at Portland State University. “Let food be thy medicine and let medicine be thy food.”“All disease begins in the gut.” — Hippocrates As we move away from the darker, colder winter season, and into longer days of sunshine and…
Learning through mistakes!
We love Sunnyside Environmental School in gorgeous, inner Southeast Portland, Oregon! We’ve been visiting Jeremy Thomas and Asa Gervich’s 4th grade classes there for several years. LEARN MORE: How to visit public schools LEARN MORE: Thank You Northwest Noggin! LEARN MORE: A crayon in Homer’s brain LEARN MORE: What about…
How many neurons in a dinosaur brain?
This week our intrepid Northwest Noggin volunteers crossed the mighty Columbia River for an energetic day at Sacajawea Elementary School in Vancouver, Washington to meet with over 400 curious 1st through 5th graders and consider their questions, share research and insights about noggins, craft new neurons and even touch a…
Snapshots of Schizophrenia
A collaborative public presentation and post by Cassie Ferguson and Michelle Kielhold. Collaborative art and neuroscience talks are back! Honey Latte Cafe! Honey Latte Cafe, 1033 SE Main St, Portland, OR 97214 LEARN MORE: NOGGIN TALKS: Free Art & Science In December 2022 we gathered at Honey Latte Cafe in Portland, Oregon…
Hey Vancouver: Let Kids Sleep!
Early start times for school: the crumbling (but fixable!) foundation of adolescent mental health. Post by Marc Chenard, University Honors College undergraduate in Biology pursuing a minor in Interdisciplinary Neuroscience at Portland State University. NOTE: Because of evidence-based advocacy by district students, teachers and Noggin volunteers, Vancouver Public Schools will move high school start times…
Students & Stories : Tales of Acquired Brains
Post by Anna Traylor, an elementary school educator pursuing a minor in Interdisciplinary Neuroscience as an undergraduate in Psychology at Portland State University. Pandemic closures My return to Portland State University in 2020 coincided with the start of the COVID-19 pandemic and what turned out to be the ever-extending COVID-…
King Cortex!
Post by Mackenzie Wang, Northwest Noggin outreach participant and undergraduate in Psychology pursuing an Interdisciplinary Neuroscience minor at Portland State University. On a wet fall morning, NW Noggin volunteers arrived at Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Elementary School in Northeast Portland, Oregon to hear from students in kindergarten through 5th grade. We were curious to…
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?.