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
NW Noggin featured in SfN Neuroscience Quarterly!
Synaptic Shocks @ P:ear! ⚡️
Make + Think + Code
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. APPLY HERE (PSU): Valparaiso - Arte y Cerebros en Chile APPLY HERE (NON-PSU): ARTS AND BRAINS IN CHILE
Imagination, Stories & Brains
Post by Jacob Schoen, OHSU Oregon National Primate Research Center “Man was the storytelling animal, the only creature on earth that told itself stories to understand what kind of creature it was. The story was his birthright, and nobody could take it away.” –Salman Rushdie Only humans..? One message that…
Siletz Stories, Singing, Dancing & Brains!
“If stories come to you, care for them. And learn to give them away where they are needed. Sometimes a person needs a story more than food to stay alive. That is why we put these stories in each other’s memories. This is how people care for themselves.” –Barry Lopez…
Memory & Learning with Noggin @ PAM
NW Noggin joined the Right Brain Initiative for the Right Brain Initiative Summer Symposium at the Portland Art Museum this last Thursday. Jeff Leake, along with artist Kindra Crick and PSU undergraduate Jordan Ray talked to educators from around Oregon about the integration of science in art education. Jeff also ran…
Noggin Power!
Post and pictures by Denesa Lockwood Oberbeck, OHSU/NW Noggin Board “Home of the Seagulls!” Today we visited a 3rd grade classroom at Lakeshore Elementary School in Vancouver, Washington. Our enthusiastic volunteers included Denesa Lockwood of OHSU, Iris Gutierrez, Ruth Marigomen and Anthony Almonte from WSU, and Joey Seuferling, our Noggin Resource Council member…
Adventure A-Head
“It is not my intention to be fulsome, but I confess that I covet your skull.” –Arthur Conan Doyle, The Hound of the Baskervilles Native stories are often seasonal, and those who closely observe fellow denizens of our natural world tell instructive tales, and create dances and songs relating the…
Music & Brain: Rewarding Rhythms for Houseless Youth
Post by Jesse Hamlin, NW Noggin Resource Council member for music and performance. Jesse is a Portland State University undergraduate in Psychology and completed this work as part of his honors thesis. He also organized Noggin Fest in fall, 2017, which helped bring 21 volunteers to Washington DC to present…
Spinning Wheels: Anorexia in Research & Art
“To lose confidence in one’s body is to lose confidence in oneself” –Simone de Beauvoir When you look at yourself in the mirror, what do you see? The perception of your body is complex, integrating detection of touch, muscle stretch, joint position, visceral activities, acceleration, balance, metabolism – and of course…
Applied neuroscience – & STEAM
“Our national obsession with test scores as the measure of school quality has not only not produced progress, but it is breaking our public school system apart. We have had a decade and a half of this misguided focus. It must stop.” –Carol Burris, Executive Director of the Network for…
Brain play, diet & soup!
We love Brain Awareness Season, a popular winter/spring series of neuroscience activities and events. NW Noggin is honored to partner with the Dana Foundation, a leading philanthropic organization that first established Brain Awareness Week, and supports research through grants, publications, and programs. LEARN MORE: Brain Awareness Week (BAW) is the global campaign to increase public…
Diet vs. Brain
“One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well” – Virginia Woolf We wheeled our colorful cart back to Portland’s Newmark Theater to hear Bita Moghaddam, the Chair of Behavioral Neuroscience at OHSU, provide the nutritious conclusion to this year’s OHSU Brain Awareness lecture series on…
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!.