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
PARC and Recreation :)
Did school kill my brain?
Summer 2015: Week 2 Complete!
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
Crecimiento de un jardín de cerebros junto a p:ear
«Desde el comienzo del tiempo, en la niñez, pensé que el dolor significaba que no era amado. Significa que yo amaba.»_________________________________________ “From the beginning of time, in childhood, I thought that pain meant I was not loved. It meant I loved.” – Louise Glück, recipiente del Premio Nobel 2020 en Literatura…
The world, filtered
“Truth is often a multiplicity of perspectives, and sometimes the more viewpoints and versions of events there are, the closer the reader gets to an overarching truth.” – Susan Barker We returned to p:ear again this week, to consider brains and contribute art to the colorful and evolving youth-built “Brain…
Action AND Potential!
This is our SECOND free collaborative Northwest Noggin, Brainfacts.org and Society for Neuroscience webinar devoted to interdisciplinary, arts-integrated outreach efforts around the world! Our first webinar – “Reconnecting our brains, one cell at a time,” is available for viewing on the Brainfacts.org website – and also here on nwnoggin.org. LEARN…
A brain garden grows @ p:ear
“From the beginning of time, in childhood, I thought that pain meant I was not loved. It meant I loved.” – Louise Glück, winner of the 2020 Nobel Prize in Literature READ EN ESPAÑOL: Crecimiento de un jardín de cerebros unto a p:ear In this time of COVID, extreme inequality…
Your brain on preparedness
“Why don’t most people prepare for earthquakes, tsunamis, hurricanes, fires, pandemics and other natural disasters? What does neuroscience research suggest about our brains and anxiety, and decision making around high stakes, low frequency traumatic events? And why is preparedness – taking accessible, genuinely effective steps to get ready, both individually…
Reconnecting Our Brains, One Cell at a Time
We did it! We made art. We built our own brain cells. We created synapses and networks and re-connected brains. But please: keep going! We enjoyed a *FREE, GLOBAL, ALL AGES* webinar in June 2020, a collaboration between NW Noggin and BrainFacts.org. AND WE ENJOYED A SECOND FREE GLOBAL WEBINAR ON…
Pandemic connections
Before COVID-19, Noggin had a FULL schedule of immersive volunteer outreach visits on the calendar for spring, including public art and science talks, school sessions, community experiences – even exciting road trips to Poulsbo, Washington and Bend, Oregon! But how do you engage in outreach during a pandemic? The core…
Science Matters
“The best lack all conviction, while the worst Are full of passionate intensity.” –William Butler Yeats We’re experiencing an extraordinary collision of biology and psychology. A dangerous virus that spreads easily when people congregate has killed over 94,000 Americans in two months. *UPDATE (August 2020): Deaths now past 160,000 and rising…
Dear NW Noggin…
As educators in public classrooms and community, our volunteer STEAM outreach activities are impacted by the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. LEARN MORE: Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) advice for the public from the WHO (World Health Organization) LEARN MORE: How to manage stress and anxiety during coronavirus crisis LEARN MORE: The Brains at…
The Brains at Brain Fair
“I’ve been very involved in science literacy because it’s critically important in our world today…As a public, we’re asked to vote on issues,…accept explanations,…figure out what to do with our own health care, and you can’t do that unless you have some level of science literacy.” ― Mae C. Jemison Coronavirus,…
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?.