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
Your Inner Worm Bin
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
Developing brains @ Discovery
Our Noggin volunteers returned to Discovery Middle School this Tuesday for more creative art and brains with science teacher Sam Barnhart’s 7th grade classes. Alex Voigt, Erin McConnell, Justin Case, Gil Brady, Jacob Schoen, Jason Koch, Danae Brown, and Kayla Stippich from Portland State, and Rosie Salice and Essence Zundel…
Driving dendrites @ Discovery!
A nice crowd of Noggin volunteers spent their Friday afternoon with science teacher Nina Gross’ enthusiastic 7th grade students at Discovery Middle School in Vancouver. We were guests of Nina’s, and her fellow science teacher Sam Barnhart, whose classes many of us will return to visit next Tuesday… Hilary Frey and Austin Howard of…
Your brain is plastic @ Velo!
Noggin packed the bike house Wednesday, for an informative, entertaining look at how brains encode memories, covering both genetic and “epi-genetic” contributions to why you remember what you remember, and do what you do… Dr. John Harkness, a postdoc in Barbara Sorg’s former Neuroscience lab at WSU Vancouver, teamed up with celebrated…
Brain Watch Wednesday!
Thanks to the extraordinary Brain Watch program at Providence St. Vincent Hospital, three high school teachers, one Noggin volunteer, and twelve Noggin high school participants from McCoy Academy, Skyview and Fort Vancouver High Schools witnessed brain surgery today… Angela Fojtik, a Biology teacher at Skyview, brought along Noah Tukhashvili (who…
Velo in January: Memory, Art, Genes, and Bikes!
Join us for an evening with internationally renowned artist Kindra Crick, and Dr. John Harkness from the Sorg lab at WSU Vancouver, on WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 27th, from 6 – 8pm..! WHAT: Remembering is who we become How neurogenetics influence our preferences, memories and personalities… Kindra Crick and John Harkness WHEN:…
Hippocampal hordes at HeLa High
Ten Noggin volunteers visited Henrietta Lacks High School in Vancouver this week, with a well-traveled bucket of human brains, to talk neuroscience with several hundred students curious about everything from gender identity, music and memory, to anxiety, brain eating amoebas and sleep… (Picture by Alex Voigt) Our brainy team brought in several undergraduates from Portland State University (during…
I am thankful…for my brain!
An enthusiastic band of Noggin volunteers met an exuberant and well-informed classroom of 4 and 5 years olds this morning, who had been eagerly learning, and singing, about their changing brains! Kindergarten teacher Kelsey Day welcomed us into her friendly classroom at WSU Vancouver, where students already knew all about…
Final Day @ Fort: Brain Dissections!
Friday marked the exciting and yet sorrowful conclusion of NW Noggin’s program at Fort Vancouver High School. We are going to miss our students! Volunteers started slow with a brief re-cap of brain lobe function as well as neuroanatomy terms that assist in navigating the brain, such as rostral and…
Beethoven, Brains, and Bloody Mary’s
NW Noggin partnered with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra to present on music and the brain on Thursday, December 3rd, at the Brickstone Ballroom in downtown Vancouver… We arrived before dawn, to set up our brain display, and enjoy an excellent breakfast… Both the Brickstone and Symphony made us feel exceptionally welcome, with table centerpieces…
Puppets @ PSU: Teaching science through art
NWNOGGIN joined Sarah Morgan and her class of enthusiastic Art in the Elementary School students at Portland State University this week to discuss the importance of STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, Mathematics) education and the power of art in education. Joseph Cornell “Habitat Group for a Shooting Gallery” We talked…
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!.