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
Noggin Takes DC
Synapses in San Diego: Noggin @ SfN
From External to Internal
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.
Parietal Party in the PSU Park
Post by Noggin volunteer and PSU Psychology undergraduate Allie Clark… This week the NW Noggin brains took a field trip from their usual home at WSU Vancouver to Portland’s Park Blocks! The brains were the stars of the show at the PSU Neuroscience Club’s booth for Portland State’s annual Party in the Park, a…
Chronic pain and Mary Jane
Post written by Ram Kandasamy, Neuroscience, WSU Vancouver Ram presented his graduate research on cannabinoids and chronic pain as part of a Washington State Psychological Association workshop in September, 2016; a workshop that will also be offered at WSU Vancouver early in 2017 (date/time TBA)… EXPLORE MORE: Art, Pain – and…
Ventricles in Vancouver!
A few early mornings for our Noggin crew this week – in fact, it was likely too early for most adolescent brains… ? LEARN MORE: Sleep in Adolescents: The Perfect Storm The first biology class at Fort Vancouver High School starts at 7:25am, so we discussed the importance of sleep, how teenagers need at…
Art, pain – and pot?
NW Noggin presented a workshop for the Washington State Psychological Association (WSPA) on Saturday, September 10 at North Seattle Community College. A second workshop will be presented at WSU Vancouver in 2017 (date/time TBD)… WORKSHOP SYLLABUS FROM SEPTEMBER (2 CE): WSPA Art Pain and Cannabinoids September 2016 Cannabis sativa from Vienna Dioscurides, 512 AD Bill Griesar,…
Visual Culture & Cannabis With the WSPA
On Saturday Bill Griesar, Ram Kandasamy, and Jeff Leake joined the Washington State Psychological Association to talk about the science, history, and art of cannabis use. Artists have depicted (and used) cannabis for thousands of years. Examining this visual history both ancient and contemporary can tell us a great deal…
Pikachu or Purkinje?
Northwest Noggin was ably represented at the Camas 4 Kids Health Fair in Camas, Washington this weekend by Joey Seuferling, the Noggin Resource Council member for hospital and health care outreach, who authored this post… It was a beautiful and brainy day at the Camas 4 Kids Health Fair where…
La Alegría de la Ciencia
NW Noggin “charged” south – way south! – to the dramatic, artistically and scientifically rich central coast of Chile, to visit the region where neuroscience blossomed in the second half of the last century, and explore potential links with a celebrated outreach program in Valparaíso… Neurons, of course, carry messages – information about…
Franklin and Phineas Gage
Some healthy frontal lobe development was underway in Portland Public Schools this morning..! Noggin volunteers were invited by the Academic Youth Development (AYD) program, a summer effort by PPS to socially and academically prepare new 9th graders for arrival in high schools this fall… Our outreach participants included Allie Clark, Jessica Patching-Bunch and…
Bringing Neuroscience to Congress
Christie Pizzimenti, an enthusiastic outreach participant from Behavioral Neuroscience at OHSU, presented in the US Senate this spring during our Noggin “Brains + Art” tour of Washington DC. She just published a guide for the Society for Neuroscience on how best to promote brain science on Capitol Hill! Bringing Neuroscience to Congress NW Noggin is…
The Science of Six Pack @ Velo
“Oh demon alcohol, sad memories I can’t recall,” sang The Kinks, about excessive drinking and the risk of blackouts and other consequences. Rob Oberdorfer, Levi Cecil and Evan Railton of the Neutral Spirits covered the song, along with additional ethanol-related tunes during a Noggin presentation by neuroscientist Andrey Ryabinin on why we imbibe…
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!.