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
Why do we think too hard?
Aloha Potential!
Drugs, Genes & Waltzing Mice!
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.
A “Battle Ground” – for brains!
On a day when the fate of evidence-based research investment appeared uncertain, we brought our engaged, curious, future oriented undergraduates to meet the energetic students at Battle Ground High… EXPLORE MORE: Science under President Trump (Nature) Julia Gruszceki, Joey Seuferling, Gianfranco DiCarlo, Sabrina Polehn, Valerie Teegardin, Zander Eisenhower, Maria Honsowetz, Chad Foster, Vicki Nganga and…
Synapses in San Diego: Noggin @ SfN
In addition to presenting a new Noggin poster at the Public Teaching of Neuroscience: Outreach session, and another poster at the Society for Neuroscience (SfN) Brain Awareness Campaign Event… POSTER: Brain Awareness Campaign Event Presentation Time: Saturday, Nov 12, 2016, 2:30 PM – 4:30 PM Location/Room: San Diego Convention Center, Room 16 POSTER: Public Teaching of…
Skyhawk Synapses @ Skyridge!
Post written by PSU Psychology undergraduate Allie Clark. Pictures by Kanani Miyamoto (PNCA), Jessica Patching-Bunch (PSU), and Joey Seuferling (WSU Vancouver)… Noggin returned for three days this week to Skyridge Middle School in Camas, Washington to teach over 250 students about their fascinating brains… OUR PREVIOUS VISIT: Synaptic Pruning @ Skyridge This…
A receptor return to iTech!
Another eager crowd of Noggin volunteers arrived at iTech Prep this afternoon, to talk synapses, receptors and drugs with 160 sharp high school students we met last week… Today we also welcomed Ram Kandasamy, a graduate student in Mike Morgan’s lab at WSU Vancouver, and post doc Dr. John Harkness…
Is Your Brain Fractal?
“Fractal geometry is not just a chapter of mathematics, but one that helps Everyman to see the same world differently.” – Benoit Mandelbrot A nice, crisp fall evening in Portland, Oregon… Perfect for bicycling to Velo Cult for a pint, along with thought-provoking science and art… Curious folks, including many from Portland…
Interneurons @ iTech
This week we introduced our depolarizing crowd of Noggin volunteers to 160 high school students at iTech Prep, a Vancouver public school that takes a welcome and familiar STEAM approach to education, “integrating art and design principles into research and problem-based learning…” Our volunteers included Wendy McMakin and Andrew Stanley from Psychology…
Visual “Gnosis” at the Andy Warhol Museum
While in Pittsburgh for the inspiring White House Frontiers conference, we made a stop at the Warhol Museum. Boasting the largest collection of Andy Warhol’s work, the artist’s hometown museum tracks his artistic career from his formative youth until his death in 1987. Gnosis means “knowledge” in Greek (γνῶσις), and visual…
The Art and Neuroscience of Change
NW Noggin presented cutting edge research and art concerning the neuroscience of behavioral change this week at the Portland Art Museum, as part of the Change Connect 4 conference for the Association of Change Management Professionals… High school students from Fort Vancouver High School crafted diverse and colorful neurons from pipe cleaners which hung as a dramatic malleable network during…
Noggin @ White House Frontiers
“Societies in which we are able to unify ourselves around values and ideals and character and how we treat each other and cooperation and innovation…are gonna be more successful than societies that don’t” -Barack Obama The White House Frontiers Conference brought together some of the world’s leading innovators in Pittsburgh this week to…
STEAM CONTEST: The Art of Neuroscience @ OHSU!
Submit your brain-inspired art! Details above, and in the document below – high school students are encouraged to contribute! READ: Oregon Brain Institute: The Art of Neuroscience contest
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!.