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
The Brains at Brain Fair
STEAM Ahead: A new interdisciplinary neuroscience minor at Portland State!
Lemon candy @ P:ear
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
A Noggin Summer @ Velo: Music, Voles, Bikes & Beer!
What do prairie voles have to do with heavy drinking..? WHAT: “The Unpredictable Science of Drinking Too Much,” presented by Andrey Ryabinin (OHSU Behavioral Neuroscience) and Rob Oberdorfer & The Neutral Spirits (members of Ages and Ages) WHEN: First Thursday, July 7th, 2016 WHERE: VELO CULT, 1969 NE 42nd Avenue,…
Igniting interest with Blaze and Brains!
(Alliteration by Noggin volunteer Austin Howard!) School’s out – but our Noggin volunteers won’t slow down! We kicked off a beautiful Northwest summer weekend in Vancouver, Washington, at the Healthy Kids Fair at Legacy Salmon Creek… Lynette Wolf, Austin Howard, Jessica Patching-Bunch, Gaile Parker and Allie Clark from Psychology at Portland State…
Sublime Science: Skyview High @ PAM
This Friday 26 exuberant Skyview High School students made the trek from Vancouver to Portland to join us at the Portland Art Museum for an afternoon of art and science. We began by discussing how all of our students were already equipped with the knowledge necessary to address any artwork they…
Synaptic sprouting @ Skyview!
After a week of projects and activities with our grads and undergrads from Portland State University, Oregon Health & Science University, and WSU Vancouver, we hit the road for field trips! We’d already enjoyed an exciting introduction to the brain on Tuesday… And creative neuron printmaking with artist Carrie Miyamoto and artist/neuroscience…
Noggin GEARs UP for a Skyview Storm ⚡️
We kicked off four days of NW Noggin outreach excitement this morning at Skyview High School, just down the road from WSU Vancouver… GEAR UP, a federal program aimed at preparing low income students for college, offered stipends to five practiced Noggin participants, including Gaile Parker from Psychology at Portland State University, Carrie…
Reinventing high school: Bringing in the brains!
For the last four years, our Pacific Northwest Noggin volunteers, developing experts in neuroscience, psychology, anthropology, and the arts, have collaborated, and partnered with public schools, museums, libraries, hospitals, symphonies, homeless youth centers, drug rehabilitation clinics, and bicycle shop pubs… Even Congress, and the White House! We’ve brought Noggin graduates and undergraduates…
Edgefield EPSPs: Growing in Networks @ SfN!
Science thrives, community builds, and people learn when scientists get together with graduates and undergraduates from area universities to talk about research. The annual Oregon & Southwest Washington Chapter meeting for the Society for Neuroscience took place at the McMenamin’s Edgefield this weekend, and there were many opportunities for brain and social network enhancement… 🙂…
NW Noggin featured in SfN Neuroscience Quarterly!
The Society for Neuroscience just published its Neuroscience Quarterly for Spring 2016, spotlighting creative efforts to engage the public in scientific research and discovery… NW Noggin, and an article co-written by Bill Griesar and Jeff Leake, were highlighted in this latest publication from the world’s largest organization of scientists and physicians devoted to understanding…
Healthy Gyri @ Jeff!
Our Noggin team returned to the annual Health Fair at Jefferson High School in North Portland today, to speak with students about brains during lunch..! Students left their plates of food on nearby tables to don gloves and ask many interesting questions about how our brains work. One student was fascinated by the idea of…
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…
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?.