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
Imagination, Stories & Brains
BRAIN Initiative Career Award to Support Diverse Postdocs
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 do we throw up?
Ahhh…elementary school! The questions are the best! Northwest Noggin volunteers took the Interstate Bridge over the Columbia River north to Vancouver Public Schools, for a morning with energetic students at Eleanor Roosevelt Elementary. Our community-engaged participants included Bradley Marxmiller and Dr. Denesa Lockwood from OHSU, along with Justin Benner, Brin…
Can a skull regenerate?
It’s February, and we are DEEP into our winter outreach schedule, which this term reaches from Portland and Vancouver, Corvallis and the Oregon State Capitol – all the way to Washington DC! Some huge thanks: our extensive all-volunteer efforts received welcome boxes of pipe cleaners, PLA filament and other art…
Permanent Standard Time is best for your brain
We did it! Northwest Noggin was honored and stoked by an invitation from Oregon State Senator Kim Thatcher to present neuroscience research on the clear community and individual health benefits of making standard time – not daylight savings time – permanent in Oregon. Our remarkable undergraduate and graduate students at…
STEAMing back to Washington!
Northwest Noggin returns to DC! This month we are honored to join Oregon’s Roundhouse Foundation along with a host of incredible rural, arts and tribal representatives at the National Arts Summit in Washington DC, organized by the National Endowment for the Arts and the White House Office of Domestic Policy! “This…
See what we did this fall!
Our interdisciplinary neuroscience undergrads and faculty were BUSY this fall, from local public schools and Boise conferences to OHSU research labs and the halls of Congress! Here are the latest interdisciplinary neuroscience undergraduate posts from our Noggin volunteers, covering research on houselessness and sleep, childhood development, youth corrections, artificial intelligence,…
A Brain without Glia
Post by Natalie Robison (she/her), undergraduate in Biology at Portland State University pursuing an Interdisciplinary Neuroscience minor. Did you know that, by some measures, a brain has just as many glial cells as it does neurons? LEARN MORE: The search for true numbers of neurons and glial cells in the…
The Significance of Sleep
Post by Lorenzo Nungaray, undergraduate in Biology pursuing an Interdisciplinary Neuroscience minor at Portland State University. Lorenzo works as a research technician in the Sleep & Health Applied Research Program (SHARP) at OHSU, under the direction of Dr. Miranda Lim. LEARN MORE: Lorenzo Nungaray, SHARP Lab @ OHSU “Each night, when I go to…
Always Room for Growth
Post by Abubakar Nur, undergraduate in Psychology pursuing an Interdisciplinary Neuroscience minor at Portland State University. I’m an undergraduate at PSU, and I’m pursuing an interdisciplinary neuroscience minor. This Halloween I joined my fellow undergrads, along with graduate students and scientists from the nearby Oregon National Primate Research Center, for a visit to Dr. Martin…
Noggin Takes DC
“I just hope that more people will ignore the fatalism of the argument that we are beyond repair. We are not beyond repair. We are never beyond repair.” — Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Brains change, but they also develop routines, and adult brains are less plastic and more fixed in their neural…
Je pense, donc je suis: Traversing tricky topics through outreach
Post by Dan Jang, an undergraduate triple majoring in Computer Science, Biomedical Physics and General Science, and also pursuing a double minor in Mathematics and Interdisciplinary Neuroscience at Portland State University. Dan is a PSU Neuroscience Club General Officer (’21-’24) and served as Club President (’22-’23). “Je pense, donc je suis,” an insight…
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!.