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
Inter(nship) Neuron!
Hearts & Brains
Your Invisible Sixth Sense
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
Creativity and Science
NW Noggin volunteers headed to Southeast Portland this afternoon, to enjoy rather deep and thoughtful discussions about brain development and behavior with engaged and enthusiastic middle school students at Portland Public’s Creative Science School… We were welcomed by Brandan McClain, a Language Arts teacher who helped arrange our visit, and made certain his students…
Transmitters, Pesticides & Drugs at HeLa High
We enjoyed an afternoon in an Advanced Physiology class at Vancouver’s HeLa High this afternoon, a STEM-focused public school named after Henrietta Lacks… We began by reviewing the electro-chemical nature of information flow in the nervous system. Bill went over resting and action potentials, while Jeff drew a cell membrane and various gated channels on…
Neural networks on network TV… :)
Today our intrepid Noggin volunteers crafted neurons out of pipe cleaners, demonstrated perceptual distortions with “drunk” goggles, and introduced brains to students on the WSU Vancouver campus… A KOMO TV news crew was there to film interviews with Noggin outreach coordinators and students. Here’s what they produced…
Washington congressional staff use their brains!
The 2015 Summer Outreach Program is over, but NW Noggin is still keeping active! We’re working on multiple projects that will be happening in the coming months, so stay tuned! Earlier this week NW Noggin was a part of the Washington State legislative staff tour at WSU-V. Legislative staff toured the…
Wait what? Your brain on art!
NW Noggin filmed an episode of “Wait What?,” hosted by Phillippa Pitts, a Kress Foundation Interpretive Fellow at the Portland Art Museum. Jeff Leake and Bill Griesar discuss how our brains respond to various aspects of art from the museum’s permanent collection…
2015 Summer Programs COMPLETE!
Our four Noggin outreach sites finished up this week with lessons, activities and treats! Check out what our talented and creative students from WSU Vancouver, PSU, the Pacific Northwest College of Art and OHSU collaboratively accomplished this summer in Portland and Vancouver… WSU/MESA program in Vancouver Sabin K-8 SUN program…
Summer 2015: Week 2 Complete!
Week 2 of our 2015 Summer Outreach Program is complete! Our participants had an action (potential) packed week of neuroscience and art integrated activities and lessons. To learn about the visual system, participants at Jason Lee created their own after-images! Our students with the MESA program got the…
Summer 2015: Week 1 Complete!
The first week of the NW Noggin 2015 Summer Outreach Program is already over! We still have two more weeks of neuroscience and art curriculum in store for the four different sites participating this year, with specially designed lesson plans, neuroscience laboratory tours, sheep brain dissections, collaborative murals, games of synaptic…
Guest Post: Singing the Noggin Song!
By Elena Mahrt, Zoology/Neuroscience @ Washington State University Vancouver What a beautiful and terrifying sound! It wavered slightly, as if unsure it should be heard. But after a few moments it smoothed into a steady melody. What was this sound, you ask? Why, it was the sound of my own voice! I…
Guest Post: Memories of bikes, brains, and skateboard filled beers
By Megan Slaker, graduate Noggin volunteer from Neuroscience, WSU Vancouver Greetings fellow scientists, explorers, communicators, and investigators! Walking into Velo Cult Bike Shop, I was slightly distracted by the number of bicycles, helmets, wheels, and strange tools. I sat down on a long bench next to a table and watched…
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!.