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
PSU, Noggin, OMSI & Brains!
Nogginfest Art Auction
Building a Brain for Science
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
Why Art? Noggins go to Washington
Why art? We often hear this question when we go to conferences, talk with school and university administrators, and even while presenting in Congress. For the students we work with in the classroom however, and for many other teachers who work directly with kids, this approach seems very natural. This…
The humanity of science
Post by Sulema Rodriguez, Noggin Resource Council member for NIH BUILD EXITO “We shall overcome because the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice” – Martin Luther King Jr, at the Washington D.C Memorial Between ivory buildings and neurons, it was surreal being surrounded by…
Noggin has the Juice!
NW Noggin is thrilled and honored to receive an award at the Regional Arts & Culture Council (RACC) Juice breakfast ceremony on Thursday, March 1, 2018! LEARN MORE: RACC Announces the 2018 Juice Honorees Check out details from the March 1 RACC breakfast ceremony at this link!! Ten Ways to Support the Arts Juice…
Synapses, Stories & Song: Coyote, Grizzly & their Brains!
We did it!! See a full summary at the link… Until the story takes shape LEARN MORE: Synapses, Stories & Song! October 8 – October 11 In the Spirit of Learning Joanne Trzcinski on Synapses, Stories & Song! NW Noggin is thrilled and honored to receive a grant from the…
Jobe Ritchie: I witnessed genuine engagement…
Post by Jobe Ritchie, Noggin volunteer from Portland State University “The scholar struggles for the benefit of all humanity, sometimes to reduce physical effort, sometimes to reduce pain, and sometimes to postpone death, or at least render it more bearable.” -Santiago Ramón y Cajal For better or worse, we are all…
Joey Seuferling: Institutions must advance…
Post by Joey Seuferling, Noggin Resource Council member for healthcare and hospitals First, I would like to gratefully thank my sponsor who charitably donated to NW Noggin so that I might join the Washington D.C. trip! (My alma mater had promised support for students in outreach, but in the end…
Andrea Anaya: With each twist of a pipe cleaner…
Post by Andrea Anaya, Noggin volunteer, Portland State University Neuroscience Club Treasurer Speaking to the Neuroscience and STEAM caucuses in the U.S. House of Representatives, volunteering at Sidwell and Turner Elementary in D.C., and presenting a poster at the Society for Neuroscience conference opened doors for further connection between scholars and…
Brains, biofeedback & SLEEP @ Fort Vancouver!
Fort Vancouver High School, the diverse “Home of the Trappers,” is also home to some excellent science teachers, including Coreyanne Russell, Angela Fojtik, Andrew Wicklas, James Cederstrom and Ahran Jang. We’ve hosted their students at a Providence Brain Watch surgery, and their pipe cleaner neurons even hung at the Portland Art…
Feeling stressed?
And who isn’t? Just look at current events… Republicans in Congress (even supposed “moderates”) took a major step this week towards raising taxes on graduate students while showering wealthy individuals and corporations with massive financial windfalls. Sexual assault by those in positions of authority, environmental degradation, oil drilling in the Arctic National…
Serving 700 students at SfN!
A huge thanks to the Society for Neuroscience for inviting our undergraduate outreach participants to this fall’s conference in Washington, DC, waiving registration and poster fees, and joining us for our Noggin/American Brain Coalition briefing in Congress – and at Turner Elementary, where we worked with over 650 kids! LEARN MORE:…
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!.