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
Bound in a Net of Memories
Noggin Brings Brains, Volunteers, Coffee and Pizza to Brain Fair 2024
Soup for Brains!
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.
Community Neuroscience: Interview with Dana!
NW Noggin is honored to be a Brain Awareness Week partner of the Dana Foundation, a leading philanthropic organization that supports brain 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… “I tell my students, ‘When…
The World Inside Their Heads
Post by Camden Howard, undergraduate in Psychology at Portland State University. Photos and editing contributions by Bill Griesar. Cam introduces Mac students to a human brain from BioGift NW Noggin traveled across the Columbia River this week to visit with students and families at “the Mac” – a.k.a., McLoughlin Middle…
All is in motion, is growing, is you
“Remember you are all people and all people are you. Remember you are this universe and this universe is you. Remember all is in motion, is growing, is you.” –Joy Harjo, from “Remember” Our NW Noggin volunteers eagerly returned to meet with young people incarcerated at the MacLaren Youth Correctional…
Best brain scientists!
Post by Raeleen Gilman, Science Teacher at Skyridge Middle School in the Camas School District. NW Noggin volunteers (including a former Skyridge graduate!) have brought brains and art to classrooms here since 2014! Just last week Robby Heiberg, Darrin Lane, Aaron Eisen and Greyson Moore from Psychology at Portland State…
What will your students remember in five years?
Post by CoreyAnne Russell, Science Teacher, Fort Vancouver High School/Center for International Studies NW Noggin volunteers are honored to work alongside CoreyAnne Russell and other science teachers at Fort Vancouver High School, the Home of the Trappers! Their students have dissected sheep brains and viewed live brain surgeries at Providence St.…
What is brain surgery like?
Post by Sai Kiersarsky, NW Noggin volunteer and Portland State University teaching assistant for the Advanced Neurophysiological Psychology course (Winter term 2019) Sai joined fellow NW Noggin volunteers, along with students and teachers from Fort Vancouver High School last week to attend Providence Brain Watch, an innovative educational outreach program…
The scalpel raised
Post by Michael Deveney, NW Noggin volunteer and Portland State University teaching assistant for the Advanced Neurophysiological Psychology course (Winter term 2019) “Surgeons must be very careful When they take the knife! Underneath their fine incisions Stirs the Culprit – Life!” –Emily Dickinson Michael joined fellow NW Noggin volunteers, along…
Ducks, Fish, Art & Brains!
“Knowing something about the deep origins of humanity only adds to the remarkable fact of our existence: all of our extraordinary capabilities arose from basic components that evolved in ancient fish and other creatures.” ― Neil Shubin, Your Inner Fish Going places and reaching out, listening and reflecting, and sharing…
Until the story takes shape
“When we are young, the words are scattered all around us. As they are assembled by experience, so also are we, sentence by sentence, until the story takes shape.” ― Louise Erdrich UPDATE (3/2021): We are so excited to return to Siletz next fall, for a potentially live, in person…
Living like bears
“Haven’t you ever thought of living unconsciously like bears, sniffing the earth, close to pears and the mossy dark, far from human voices and fire?” – On İbrahim Balaban’s Painting “Spring” ― Nâzım Hikmet Black bear skull on Bradley Hill, Oregon Earlier this year, thanks to Wayne Sherrard of Wayne’s Taxidermy…
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!.