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
Bound in a Net of Memories
Why do we think too hard?
A Scientific Journey: The Value of Subjective Data
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
Noggin heading to NIH!
Thanks to the American Brain Coalition, our outreach participants from OHSU, Portland State University and WSUV are heading to the NIH on Friday morning (4/29), to meet with Chris Thomas, Science Writer for the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, and a graduate of OHSU’s Neuroscience program..! We’ll view prints by Spanish…
Synaptic Shocks @ P:ear! ⚡️
We spent a gorgeous Portland afternoon at P:ear, this time with bright spring sunshine, and more people curious to learn about how neurons carry information as electric current..! It was our second Noggin Wednesday at this welcoming homeless youth center this month, and our volunteers arrived with an assortment of transparencies for drawing silk screen t-shirt designs, and…
Myelinating for MESA!
NW Noggin volunteers headed to the green, mountain-ringed campus of WSU Vancouver on Saturday, to meet middle and high school students participating in MESA Day 2016… SW Washington MESA (Mathematics, Engineering, Science Achievement*) aims to offer pathways to college for traditionally underrepresented students, including African Americans, Native Americans, Hispanic/Latinos, Pacific Islanders…
“Piriforming” @ P:ear
Piriform cortex is a pear-shaped brain region in the ventral anterior temporal lobes, critical for olfaction (smell) – and the smells at P:ear in downtown Portland were extraordinary and welcoming on our first Noggin Wednesday this year… Lunch was donated by Por Que No? Taqueria and Cupcake Jones, so we…
DC: Synaptic Excitement @ PSU!
The Psychology Department at Portland State University is sending five undergraduates, and one graduate student to Washington this spring. One additional PSU undergraduate is joining us in DC, and Portland State is also a co-sponsor of the House “Brains + Art” reception! Undergraduates Allie Clark; alliewclark@gmail.com; OHSU ADHD and Attention Program, PI:…
DC: Drugs, Genes, Imaging and STEAM @ OHSU
The Department of Behavioral Neuroscience at Oregon Health & Science University is a basic science department engaged in cutting edge research and teaching focused on behavioral pharmacology, genetics, and cognitive neuroscience… Behavioral Neuroscience is sending four graduate students, with expertise in drug and brain development research, neuroimaging, and STEAM outreach to…
DC: Cougars, Art and Brains @ WSU Vancouver!
Neuroscientists at WSU Vancouver study how you hear music, form memories, feel pain, and become addicted to drugs like heroin, and cocaine. How do we preserve, and restore hearing? How can opiates, cannabinoids, and other chemicals be used effectively to treat chronic pain? Is it possible to erase powerful, drug-related memories, and…
Velo Cult Posters by Jeff Leake
Jeff has created some eye (and brain!)-catching work over the last few years, highlighting graduate student efforts in research and art… His posters for Noggin outreach events at Velo Cult, a famed bicycle shop pub, have attracted many to free, collaborative science/art presentations in Northeast Portland, and have helped inform and excite…
STEAMing to DC!
NW Noggin was invited, as the guest of both the Neuroscience and the Science, Technology, Engineering, Art & Mathematics (STEAM) caucuses in the US House of Representatives, to present a “Brains + Art” briefing in April, 2016! READ MORE: NW Noggin House briefing invitation – 4-27-16 Image by Jeff Leake and Alex Voigt (2016) Three of…
Redefining TBI through Art
This past Thursday March 10th, NW Noggin and Velo Cult Bike Shop presented Traumatic Brain Injury: Comedy, Communication, Community. The alliterative title might have had a few curious attendees scratching their noggins… Just what does comedy have to do with TBI?! And what does community have to do with an individual’s TBI?? Well,…
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?.