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
Axons @ Ardenwald!
Fentanyl On The Brain
The Art & Science of Nostalgia
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
Caldera Arts and Brains in central Oregon
This week NW Noggin partnered with Caldera Arts, an innovative educational organization serving academically at risk youth with year-round art and environmental programs in central Oregon. Caldera is located quite literally within the caldera of an extinct volcano in the Cascade mountains, just west of Sisters… In addition to engaging students in area public schools,…
Teacher Training @ OHSU
We joined K-12 teachers and other education professionals at a teacher training workshop this weekend, to discuss how to engage students of all ages in learning about their brains… Our NW Noggin volunteers, including Nate Allen, Rosie Salice, and Angela Johnson from WSU Vancouver, and Alex Voigt, Michael Miller, and Lindsay Miller from…
Day Three @ Skyview: Neurotransmitters and Drugs
Today we returned for a third series of Biology classroom visits at Skyview High… These weekly visits have allowed us to get to know some students, and build up more understanding of not only what real brains look and feel like, but also how they are made (partly) of current-carrying cells called neurons,…
NW Noggin @ the Newmark: Nicholas Bazan
Our practiced NW Noggin outreach participants set up a colorful neuron-strewn table at Portland’s Newmark Theater on Tuesday night, and spoke with audience members at the second OHSU Brain Institute “Brain Awareness” lecture, delivered by Nicolas Bazan… Dr. Bazan, Director of the Neuroscience Center of Excellence at Louisiana State University, delivered a passionate and compelling…
NW Noggin at Oregon SfN
Several undergraduate volunteers from WSU Vancouver and PSU joined us at the Oregon chapter meeting for the Society for Neuroscience on March 27th and 28th in Troutdale… We presented our colorful poster on the many outreach visits we’ve made during the past academic year, on both sides of the Columbia River… Students,…
Neurons on Day Two @ Skyview
We gathered again on a foggy Thursday at Skyview High… Last week we’d introduced our students to large scale nervous system components, including the brainstem, cerebellum and various cortical lobes, using some real human brains as examples. But this week we went small, providing an overview of the neuron. Each…
See where we’ve been @ Oregon SfN!
We’ll be attending the Oregon chapter meeting for the Society for Neuroscience this Friday and Saturday (3/27 and 3/28), at the McMenamin’s Edgefield Hotel… We’d love to see you at the nwnoggin.org poster, and we look forward to questions about our many neuroscience and art outreach activities in the Portland/Vancouver area since summer 2014……
A MESA Mindflex @ WSU-V!
We spent an occasionally stormy Saturday on the green, hilly campus of Washington State University in Salmon Creek, north of downtown Vancouver… WSU was hosting southwest Washington’s 2015 MESA Day, and students from area public schools were there to learn about academic and career opportunities in STEM fields, including neuroscience. MESA…
I Feel Your Pain @ Velo!
Another enthusiastic crowd of velocipedal neuroscience and art fans arrived at the incomparable Velo Cult for our first post-daylight savings NW Noggin event… Sunlight illuminated the ceiling-mounted bikes as Monique Smith, a graduate student in Behavioral Neuroscience at OHSU, presented fascinating research on empathy and chronic pain to an audience happily sipping…
A Synapse Sunrise at Skyview High
Sixteen committed NW Noggin volunteers from Washington State University Vancouver and PSU made an early morning journey to the enormous (2300 student!) Skyview High School in Salmon Creek, Washington, just down the road from WSU-V… We were there to meet students in three, 10th grade biology classrooms, along with their teacher Angela…
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!.