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
Breaking DNA at NogginFest 2022
Dreaming of Better Sleep for Children with Down Syndrome
A BioGift of 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. APPLY HERE (PSU): Valparaiso - Arte y Cerebros en Chile APPLY HERE (NON-PSU): ARTS AND BRAINS IN CHILE
A Coalition of Noggins & Brains
We’re excited to announce that NW Noggin has joined the American Brain Coalition! The American Brain Coalition is a nonprofit organization comprised of leading professional neurological, psychological, and psychiatric associations and patient groups, and an exceptional collaborator in our 2017 and 2016 outreach efforts in Washington DC! We were also thrilled and honored…
From classrooms to Congress!
“Nothing great is ever achieved without enthusiasm” -Ralph Waldo Emerson For several years, we’ve gathered enthusiastic undergraduates and graduates to connect, collaborate and engage in their community, building networks and inspiring K-12 students and the public about research and discovery in neuroscience and art. Our students want to leave…
One landscape contains the other…
“The Brain – is wider than the Sky – For – put them side by side – The one the other will contain With ease – and You – beside” –Emily Dickinson How do we perceive our Oregon landscapes – the visual grandeur of a Strawberry Mountain trail, the crisp…
NW Noggins Bring #brains2DC!
“It always seems impossible until it’s done” -Nelson Mandela And now it’s done! Learn more about our week in DC at the link! From classrooms to Congress! Dream it, risk it, reach out, speak up, mess up, work hard, come back, think more, change it, make art, innovate, remember consequences…
Bathing your brain @ Velo 🌲
We are lucky to live in the Pacific Northwest, with easy access to trails, forests and campgrounds. In Portland, it’s a short hike or MAX ride to the Hoyt Arboretum, where you’re quickly immersed in conifers and damp earth. You can bicycle west to Stub Stewart State Park along the…
BioGifting brains
“You ask the world, and the world says no It’s the world’s refrain, mine says go…” -John Gorka Our outreach office, and our pipe cleaners, air dry clay, sheep brains, cerebral jello molds, EEG electrodes – were once kept in a closet behind two locked doors. The tiny hidden…
Landscapes of the Brain: Seeing us all through research & art
“It’s like people see me as an object, not as a human being.” Noggin loves visiting p:ear, a nonprofit center for homeless youth. P:ear offers community, along with critical services, support, and a welcoming educational and gallery space in Portland’s Old Town neighborhood, filled with caring staff and volunteers for young people…
Brain Lessons at Liberty
Our Noggin volunteers tackled sclerotic commuter highways to meet with sleepy 10th graders at Liberty High School in Hillsboro Public Schools last week, early on a foggy autumn morning… We were invited by Ramona Toth, the Health and Chemistry teacher at Liberty, whose classroom we’d visited previously on the same memorable day we’d…
Nourishing cultural roots @ OAEA
NW Noggin was delighted to participate in the annual Oregon Art Education Association (OAEA) conference in Wilsonville, just down I-5 from Portland! It was a brilliantly colorful autumn day to run a workshop titled “STEAM Ahead! Using Art and Science to Engage Underserved Communities…” LEARN MORE: 2017 OAEA Conference Brochure We’d…
Many Noggins are better than one!
Post by Christina Williams, Noggin Resource Council member Last Wednesday, we came together and celebrated our first ever Noggin Fest, and it was an incredible success! We are thankful to all those individuals who donated their talents to make this a truly unique and memorable event, which will no doubt…
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!.