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
Correctional Connections
Las neuronas son bacánes!
Drink Together, Stay Together?
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
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
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…
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?.