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
Burned into Memory
Science Matters
Reflections on Chicago
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
Helping Hair Cells @ Velo
It was easy to hear the large, excited crowd that gathered under the bikes at Velo Cult on Thursday evening, for a lively presentation on audition and the artistry of sound… Phil Uribe, a graduate student in Neuroscience from WSU Vancouver, and Kimberly Cordray, an Arts Practices major from PSU, worked together to inform the audience…
P:ear Plans: We’re coming back!
We enjoyed our last fall gathering at P:ear today, with great food, and great questions from enthusiastic young people curious to learn more about the brain… We brought along the popular Mindflex Duel, and explained the electrical nature of information flow along networks of linked neurons, and how thinking about different topics, or engaging…
Noggin Wednesdays @ P:ear!
Our volunteer art and brain educators from PSU, WSU Vancouver and PNCA returned to P:ear this week, this time with donated neuroscience textbooks, and cool and cerebral screen printing designs… Carrie Miyamoto from PNCA brought along her metal frames, and spent a busy few hours teaching folks at P:ear how to spread…
Monet to Magritte, Contemplating Neuroscience at the Art Institute of Chicago
In light of our recent work with the Portland Art Museum, we decided to take our trusty pipe cleaner neuron down to the Art Institute of Chicago. We were in the city attending the 2015 Society for Neuroscience conference, and enjoyed an afternoon re-imagining some famous works of art. LEARN MORE:…
Posters, Politics and the PPA
Our well-traveled pipe cleaner neuron took a busy tour of SfN this weekend, thanks to travel support from the Vancouver branch campus of WSU, and drew in many curious conference attendees… We began with a special Brain Awareness poster session on Saturday, devoted to “Sparking Connections Through Brain Awareness Around the Globe…”…
Peppered with questions @ P:ear!
Eight volunteers from PSU, PNCA and WSUV have been dropping by P:ear at lunchtime to talk about brains, make beaded neurons, draw sulci and gyri, and examine real human cerebrums up close… We’ve been part of “Science Wednesdays” at this much valued “safe” space for homeless youth in downtown Portland, and have enjoyed…
Noggin @ Chicago SfN
Jeff Leake and Bill Griesar head to Chicago this week to present a poster on NW Noggin STEAM outreach efforts in both formal and informal settings – everything from K-12 schools to theaters, art museums, breweries, conferences, homeless youth outreach centers, and bike shop pubs 🙂 We’ll present at the…
Listen in @ Velo Cult: October 29!
WHAT: One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Deaf Fish: What Fish Can Teach Us About Hearing Loss, with Phil Uribe (WSU Vancouver) and Kimberly Cordray (Portland State University) WHEN: Thursday, October 29, 2015, 6 – 8pm WHERE: Velo Cult, 1969 NE 42nd Avenue, Portland, OR Hearing is among our most critical…
The Nature of Seeing: Noggins and Art
Fresh off a long drive from a conference workshop in Ashland, and a shorter bike ride from Northeast Portland, Jeff and Bill had the exciting opportunity to attend the Portland Art Museum member opening of “Seeing Nature,” an extraordinary exhibit of landscape masterworks from the Paul G. Allen Family Collection… We headed first to…
Art and Brains in Ashland
Northwest Noggin presents: five talented artists from PNCA made a five hour drive to southern Oregon, to introduce arts projects they had developed during collaborative summer outreach with Psychology and Neuroscience students from PSU, WSU Vancouver and OHSU, that offer insight into how our brains work… Rebecca Carlisle, Mareika Glenn, Ivy Loughborough, Kathryn MacAnalley,…
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?.