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
Synaptic Community Connections
Autonomic Function @ Franklin
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
Guest Post: From Hamlet to hemorrhaging
By Austin Howard, NW Noggin volunteer (PSU) We are in the midst of one of the great movements in science: beginning to learn the what, when, why, and how of the brain. Eventually, this may help us answer the who. That is, who we are. For our nerves from head…
2015 Summer outreach underway!
Graduates and undergraduates from WSU Vancouver, Portland State University, OHSU and the Pacific Northwest College of Art are busy collaborating, deciding on core ideas in neuroscience, and developing relevant art activities and lessons to engage K-12 students from PPS, MESA, and Vancouver Boys & Girls… We’re hearing from experts in instructional strategies, including Joyce…
Art and Noggins @ PSU!
We dropped by Sarah Morgan‘s busy arts class last week, to introduce opportunities for arts-integrated STEAM outreach through NW Noggin, and encourage participation from some talented art and design students at Portland State… Students were preparing to engage in an outdoor project based on the eye-catching work of Andy Goldsworthy, an…
VIDEO: MyBrain! in Action
Pop Up Gallery: My Brain! is a mobile application that uses augmented reality to teach students about the structure and function of their own brains… WSU Vancouver graduates Brittany Wouden and Angela Morelli are creators of MyBrain!, and have been popular and regular participants in NW Noggin outreach efforts this…
STEAM @ Newmark: Better schools with improv and art
Our creative Noggin crew, seasoned by a year of brains and art with over 3000 K-12 students, and preparing for more collaborative STEAM outreach this summer, found much to applaud in this final Brain Awareness lecture at Portland’s Newmark Theater… (Photo by Dan Carter @ www.dancarterphoto.com) We gathered many of our art, psychology and neuroscience…
Inside Noggins @ McCoy
We enjoyed one last spring day with the engaged, informed and insightful students we’ve had the pleasure to work with, and learn from, over four weeks of Monday visits to McCoy Academy. The classroom was packed, as several students had brought along friends – to school! Angela Johnson, a recent graduate of WSU Vancouver, and John Harkness, who is…
Mushrooms and Meth @ Velo!
We celebrated our first year of free art and science events at Velo Cult this week, with a presentation on psychostimulants and the adolescent brain. Emily Eastwood, a newly minted Ph.D. from OHSU Behavioral Neuroscience joined Tara Williams, an art student at PNCA who creates compelling fungal prints, to talk about mushrooms, and methamphetamine… Velo seemed…
First graders grow dendrites!
We headed to Woodstock Elementary School in southeast Portland, where teacher Joyce Iliff told us her first grade students were learning about dendrites! Joyce wasn’t kidding – they were a very informed and energetic class of kids… We began by introducing ourselves, and described where we work and study. We also explaining…
Psychostimulants at Velo May 27th!
How does methamphetamine affect genes, behavior, and development? How does the adolescent brain respond to psychostimulants..? Emily Eastwood from OHSU, and Tara Williams from PNCA, discuss the science – and art – of development and drugs at Velo Cult on Wednesday, May 27th, from 6-8pm… Come join us for this…
Protecting Noggins @ the Newmark
We gathered quite a crowd of volunteers at the Newmark Theater in downtown Portland this week, to staff our outreach table, assist the OHSU Brain Institute in collecting surveys, and listen to a remarkable lecture by Robert Stern, an expert on brain injuries and sports at Boston University… Dr. Stern was featured in a…
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!.