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
BBQ, Beer & Brains!
Reconnecting Our Brains, One Cell at a Time
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
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…
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…
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!.