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
Your Inner Worm Bin
Pipe Cleaners, Gel Prints, Electrodes & Brains!
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
If you like be akamai, make sure you get choke shut eye
Post by Greyson Moore from Portland State University and Aaron Eisen from the National University of Natural Medicine and Oregon Health & Science University As an icy snowstorm blanketed much of North America, including Northwest Oregon, our informed and enthusiastic Noggin volunteers were excited to visit (virtually) the warm Hawaiian…
The US wants to increase sleep deprivation and winter misery
Post written by NW Noggin Brain Board member Kindra Crick Finding it difficult to wake up after we ‘spring’ forward to Daylight Saving Time? The US Congress has plans to end this biannual ritual. But if we lock the clock to Daylight Saving Time as Congress hopes to, our problems…
Desperately Seeking Rasa
Post written by New/Mixed media artist Kit S. Carlton. Kit also joined OHSU Behavioral Neuroscientist Sydney Boutros for a collaborative Noggin presentation in October 2019: Memory, Poetry, Brains. Going places! In the first two weeks of February, a team of neuroscientists, students, educators, artists and classrooms of kiddos converged to contemplate…
Ho brah, he lolo maoli kēlā!
Post written by Catherine Caine (2015 Hawaii State Teacher of the Year/National Finalist), Bill Griesar – and the amazing 5th graders at Waikiki School! Going places 🌴 As a snowstorm descended on Northwest Oregon, our informed and enthusiastic Noggin volunteers were thrilled to travel (virtually) to the sunny Hawaiian island…
Uploading your brain from Vancouver
We love visiting biology classrooms at Fort Vancouver High! We’ve enjoyed many welcome opportunities to head north across the mighty Columbia to meet so many thoughtful, engaged and insightful students over the years, and teachers Coreyanne Russell and James Cederstrom are terrific collaborators and valued friends. LEARN MORE: Why do…
NW Noggin awarded Dana Foundation Brain Awareness Grant!
NW Noggin is honored to be a Brain Awareness Week partner of the Dana Foundation, a leading philanthropic organization that supports neuroscience research through grants, publications, and educational programs. We share their enthusiasm for active outreach, and their commitment to educating the public about the potential of research. LEARN MORE: The Dana Foundation LEARN MORE: Brain Awareness Week…
Noggin Fest 2021!
Post by Carli Cox, Portland State University Rosenbaum Scholar NogginFest 2021 is here! SAVE THE DATE: SATURDAY, MARCH 20, 6-8:30pm We did it!! NogginFest 2021: Threshold Potential! WATCH THE SHOW! Come join us for our annual celebration of art, music, and, of course, brains! This is the largest student-run, accessible,…
Crafting Coronavirus
“Over the years, I’ve periodically found myself in situations that felt desperate and, in those moments, I’d feel that I needed to make certain things.” — David Wojnarowicz An accelerating global pandemic, a malicious, racist, vote-suppressing, scientifically illiterate and mind-bogglingly incompetent White House and Republican party, worsening economic insecurity, growing…
Returning to find a voice
“…whatever/ returns from oblivion/ returns to find a voice.” ― Louise Glück, winner of the 2020 Nobel Prize in Literature Community partners Our exuberant NW Noggin outreach volunteers are busy in Portland this fall, enthusiastically working alongside our 2020 Community Partner, p:ear. We helped p:ear plant a vibrant brain garden, examined…
Inter(nship) Neuron!
By Carli Cox, NW Noggin Resource Council member for Portland State University I’m an Honors College undergraduate in Psychology at Portland State University, and I am really excited to announce my Rosenbaum Scholar partnership with NW Noggin! LEARN MORE: PSU Honors College Scholarship Opportunities LEARN MORE: Nonprofit Noggins! This is…
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?.