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
My Journey to Research
Returning to find a voice
Tired Trappers at Fort
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
SfN Chapter Meeting: Drugs, Genes & STEAM!
NW Noggin will join undergraduates, graduates and faculty from Oregon and Southwest Washington this weekend at the McMenamin’s Edgefield in Troutdale, Oregon, for the annual chapter meeting for the Society of Neuroscience… Topics will include vertebrate vocal circuitry, the role of microRNAs and RNA granules in temporally and spatially regulating gene expression, hippocampal…
Cajal + Creativity @ the NIH
Thanks to Katie Sale of the American Brain Coalition, our NW Noggin graduates and undergraduates from WSU Vancouver, Portland State University and OHSU were invited to spend our last East Coast morning enjoying art, science and history at the National Institutes of Health, a sprawling, 300+ acre campus of federal research agencies in Bethesda,…
Brains at the Obama White House!
On an outreach journey that became more extraordinary by the day, beginning with brains and art projects at two DC public schools, and briefings on STEAM education and neuroscience research in both houses of Congress, we gathered Thursday morning outside the gates of the magnificent Eisenhower Executive Office Building on the White House…
Brains, Beauty, & Brews: Noggin at the Phillips
On Thursday evening (4/28/16) NW Noggin joined the Phillips Collection for Brains, Beauty, & Brews, an enjoyable night of neuroscience and art in connection with the Seeing Nature exhibit of Paul Allen’s remarkable private collection of landscape paintings. Above photo by Alex Voigt How did this come about..? In the fall of…
A Capitol Day: Brains in the House – and Senate!
Since December, we have collaborated with the American Brain Coalition, the incredible staff at Rep. Earl Blumenauer and Rep. Suzanne Bonamici’s House offices, the Department of Psychology and Dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at Portland State University, the Chair of the Department of Behavioral Neuroscience and Director of the…
Brains in DC: Inspired Teaching at Turner and ITS
We have never been more proud or excited about the exceptional volunteers we’ve assembled from Portland State University, OHSU, PNCA, and other Northwest campuses as we were during this extraordinary week of Northwest outreach, art and neuroscience education in our nation’s capital… We gathered early Tuesday morning in Northeast DC at the Inspired…
Noggin networks: Where we’ll be in DC!
We have the following events confirmed for our outreach participants in Washington DC. We fly there on Monday, April 25th, and leave Saturday, April 30. Noggin folks should plan to arrive EARLY, with ID, to all scheduled appearances! There are security screenings, and often long lines to enter buildings. PRINTABLE SCHEDULE…
Lemon candy @ P:ear
Our last spring Noggin Wednesday at P:ear was bittersweet – but mostly sweet! We enjoyed demonstrating an unusually tasty link between neuron structure and function – the role of taste receptor cells, which detect chemicals in food, on our perceptual experience of flavor… Image source Taste receptor cells are found in taste buds, which…
Transcortical Teacher Training @ OHSU
We spent a sunny spring Saturday at Oregon Health & Sciences University, in the Collaborative Life Sciences Building along the Willamette River… It was a great day to bike to the annual Brain Awareness Teacher Workshop, sponsored by OHSU’s Office of Science Education Opportunities, The Moore Institute for Nutrition and…
PARC and Recreation :)
Post written by PSU Noggin undergraduate Austin Howard It was an overcast Monday morning, a day for getting back into the daily grind. However, for a group of middle school students from the Warm Springs Confederated Tribes it was anything but. Instead, OHSU’s auditorium was awash with volunteers (including our…
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!.