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
Enamored by Neuroscience!
Neuroscience for all: Creating a Brain Brochure
Brains & Sex @ SfN
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
Mental health @ McMenamin’s
Noggin volunteers and members of the Neuroscience and Psychology Clubs from Portland State University beelined to the historic art and beer-saturated McMenamin’s Edgefield Hotel last Friday to join the annual Society for Neuroscience Oregon/Southwest Washington Chapter meeting at the mouth of the Columbia River Gorge… It was a mossier, wetter morning…
Building a Brain for Science
Post by volunteer Ashley Keates, Portland State University Ashley Keates (left side; right hemisphere) & Max Barsana (right side; left hemisphere) Construction: I arrived one evening after my Sleep & Dreams class at PSU to pick up styrofoam I learned I could use to construct a BIG NOGGIN for the…
Gray Matter Marching
The skies cooperated for the second annual March for Science, a year after the damp inaugural 2017 event drew thousands of evidence-based Northwesterners to Portland’s Tom McCall Waterfront Park..! LEARN MORE: Synapsing for Science! Once again, our Noggin volunteers delivered the brains, this time to “Portland’s Living Room,” red-bricked Pioneer Square, to…
Radiating enthusiasm @ Skyridge
Post by Aaron Eisen, NW Noggin volunteer from Portland State University When I first learned of “NW Noggin,” the neuroscience outreach group, I had no idea what this tremendous experience had to offer. After reading about the all volunteer instructors and students, I discovered that Noggin traveled to local schools…
Autonomic Function @ Franklin
This week our Noggins returned in force to a stunningly renovated Franklin High, after two years of voter-approved seismic upgrades beautifully revitalized yet another Portland Public School… The message sent to students, teachers, staff and visitors is clear in school improvements – that education is a priority for this community.…
BRAIN Initiative Career Award to Support Diverse Postdocs
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is the sprawling federal agency that funds research, including brain research. The BRAIN (Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies®) Initiative is an NIH program aimed at “revolutionizing our understanding of the human brain” through investment in technologies that should ultimately allow neuroscientists to visualize how individual…
Myelination @ Madison
Una otra presentación del cerebro y arte! Last month a small crew of volunteers from Portland State University joined Maria Paz Herrera, a Youth Engagement Specialist for the Latino Network, a nonprofit that aims to lift up Latino youth and families to reach their full potential, and some of her curious students for…
Curiosity’s Sky-High at Skyridge!
Post written by Ruth Marigomen, Noggin Resource Council member for WSU Vancouver Noggin once again incited wonder about neuroscience amongst youngsters, and this time we shared our brains (both inside and outside our heads) with curious students at Skyridge Middle School..! We were fortunate enough to reach four Skyridge classes…
Women in Science (& Art!)
If you were asked to draw a scientist, who would you draw? LEARN MORE: Recognizing Ms. Frizzle’s Own Magic For children in the 1960’s and 1970’s, fewer than 1% drew pictures of women. For those asked in studies conducted from 1985 – 2016, this rose to an average of 28%. Yet the youngest kids (ages…
Brains are xumxum @ Willamina
“There have been great societies that did not use the wheel, but there have been no societies that did not tell stories.” –Ursula LeGuin Another road trip! We rose early, loaded our new artist-designed and built “Arc of the Brain Event” cart into the Subaru, grabbed coffee in McMinnville and…
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?.