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
BioGifting brains
See what we did this fall!
NW Noggin featured in SfN Neuroscience Quarterly!
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.
Your Invisible Sixth Sense
Post by Hannah Hauser, an undergraduate pursuing a Bachelor of Science in Liberal Studies and an Interdisciplinary Neuroscience minor at Portland State University. Exploring neuroscience and learning more about how our brains and bodies work will forever be fascinating… I frequently find myself saying “How did I not know this…
Do You Wake Up Tired?
Post by Meaghan Creech, undergraduate in Public Health: Pre-Clinical Health Sciences pursuing a Neuroscience Minor at Portland State University. Meaghan is currently in the last term of their NIH-funded PSU URISE Cohort 2 placement in Nicole Bowles Lab within the Oregon Institute of Occupational Health Sciences at Oregon Health and…
The Art and Neuroscience of Narrative
About the art and neuroscience of narrative by artist Jeff Leake Bill Griesar and I kicked off the month of February with a discussion of brains and storytelling to open my show “New Mythologies” at the Corrine Woodman Gallery at the Art Center in Corvallis. We also discussed many of…
Brains Love Animals
Post (and illustrations!) by Elizabeth DeGraw, an undergraduate Psychology major pursuing a minor in Interdisciplinary Neuroscience at Portland State University. Discovering my topic, animals saved the day As I was trying to think of a good topic to write about for this post, I was hoping to land on an…
How fast can you go?
Post by Diego Sanchez, an undergraduate pre-Physician’s Assistant in Psychology pursuing an Interdisciplinary Neuroscience minor at Portland State University. There are many activities that I enjoy doing when I have the time. I like to travel, go to the beach, watch a movie with the family, and so forth. Two…
Brain Cells Dance
Noggin drama! This spring we traveled to Oregon’s spectacular North Coast for a few days of theater and school visits, to explore the cellular actors that populate our brains. We are indebted to TRIO Clatsop and the tireless work of Meredith Payton, who once again helped organize housing and meals…
Without my amygdala, would I get scared?
On a sunny, flowering, pollen-dense spring day, eighteen Noggin volunteers from Portland State University happily converged on Sunnyside Environmental School in southeast Portland. The school was bursting with activity, as students, teachers and staff were readying plants for a sale, while we carried in our pipe cleaner astrocytes, cerebellar granule…
Noggin Brings Brains, Volunteers, Coffee and Pizza to Brain Fair 2024
We love BRAIN FAIR! What do we love about the annual Brain Fair at the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry? It’s FREE! Brain Fair is FREE, which is – unfortunately – not a typical OMSI experience. If you want to visit the rest of Portland’s premier science institution with…
From External to Internal
Trading Darkroom Photography for Brain Imaging Post by Amanda Jones, undergraduate in Psychology and Social Science pursuing an Interdisciplinary Neuroscience minor at Portland State University. Amanda currently volunteers for the NCANDA-A study in the Developmental Brain Imaging Lab (DBIL) at Oregon Health and Science University. For as long as I can remember, cameras have always…
My Pathway to Research
Post by Connie Tran, undergraduate in Biology pursuing an Interdisciplinary Neuroscience minor at Portland State University. Connie is a research assistant in Dr. Martin Schreiber‘s lab in the Donald D. Trunkey Center for Civilian and Combat Casualty Care at OHSU. Connie Tran at her research poster during the PSU BUILD EXITO Summer Research Symposium…
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!.