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
Memory & Learning with Noggin @ PAM
Nicotine is a gateway drug
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
Brains With Little Brains
Post by Andrea Rano, NIH BUILD EXITO undergraduate at Portland State University NW Noggin was invited to return to the Helen Gordon Child Development Center at PSU last week. LEARN MORE: Meet your brain cells! We had plenty of curious and enthusiastic Portland State undergraduate volunteers, including Bharani Nallamala, Krystal…
Pathways Under Change
LEARN MORE: Whose land are you on? Northwest Noggin traveled along the Columbia River to St. Helens, Oregon, named for the local volcano that erupted in 1980. We spent the morning with clients at the Pathways Residential Treatment Facility, a program of Columbia Community Mental Health, discussing substance use disorders…
Who’s really good at asking “why?”
Post by Elana Kananykhina, undergraduate at Portland State University. Elana is pursuing a minor in interdisciplinary neuroscience, and volunteers in Adie Rae Wilson-Poe’s cannabinoid research lab at Legacy Research Institute. Last month we visited 4th graders in Portland Public Schools, and considered their compelling questions. LEARN MORE: How to visit…
How to visit public schools
On two gorgeously colorful, drizzly fall mornings we gathered at one of our favorite Portland Public Schools. While some people (many from outside Portland) chose to disrupt this week’s PPS board meeting by melodramatically pulling off their masks and shouting “freedom,” we arrived fully vaccinated at Sunnyside Environmental School with…
Silence and Sagebrush @ Montello
In addition to outreach I’m also a practicing artist. Over the past few years one of the things that has become increasingly vital to my practice are artist residencies. This last September I was invited to spend two weeks out in the Nevada desert making art in a cabin that…
Threshold through TRIO
What is TRIO? The federal TRIO Programs reach out and support individuals who are not currently overrepresented in higher education. Upward Bound, Talent Search and Student Support Services were the original “trio,” founded in the 1960s – but they’ve been joined by Educational Opportunity Centers, the Ronald E. McNair Scholarships…
Viking, Shark, Fishermen & Bandit Brains!
“Amazing the things you find when you bother to search for them.” ― Sacagawea We’re approaching a full decade of volunteer outreach amidst a landscape of extensive public “STEM Hub” investments, well-funded institutional outreach positions, paywalled conferences and museum exhibitions aimed at communicating science. But we’re pretty excited about the…
Faces at p:ear!
We kicked off fall term with a return to p:ear, a remarkable Portland nonprofit aimed at building positive relationships with homeless and transitional youth through education, art and recreation. NW Noggin has collaborated with p:ear for SEVEN years (!), and we were honored to serve as their Community Partner of…
Gresham Cool
Last week’s brain-baking temperatures gave way to a more traditional Oregon summer day – a few clouds, “sunbreaks” and some welcome morning cool. Our use of fossil fuels changes climate, and the data could not be more clear. Thankfully the latest IPCC report also identified steps we can take, crucial…
Hillsboro Heat
As temps soared to triple digits in our formerly mild Pacific Northwest, a network of undergraduates, graduate students, neuroscientists and artists arrived in Hillsboro, Oregon to talk brains and make art. LEARN MORE: The Pacific Northwest Is Getting Hit By Another Heat Wave LEARN MORE: Climate change widespread, rapid, and…
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?.