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
Myelin @ McMenamin’s!
NW Noggin awarded Dana Foundation Brain Awareness Grant!
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
Brains in Boise
A huge thanks to Geof Garner, the President of the National Association of Educational Opportunity Programs (NAEOP), for inviting Northwest Noggin to their annual conference in Boise Idaho! This was our THIRD conference workshop on interdisciplinary neuroscience outreach for NAEOP, following earlier presentations in Bellevue, Washington and Gleneden Beach, Oregon.…
Butterflies in my brain!
It’s fall, the leaves are changing, and Noggin volunteers are heading back into public schools, correctional facilities, houseless youth nonprofits, neuroscience conferences and even Congress! Imagine that! BRAINS IN CONGRESS: Noggin at SfN, DC schools – and the U.S. House! LEARN MORE: Noggin Event Calendar! LEARN MORE: The last time…
Las neuronas son bacánes!
Jeff Leake and Bill Griesar of Northwest Noggin are teaching a NEW interdisciplinary neuroscience course NEXT SUMMER (2025) in the extraordinary art and brain research saturated coastal city of Valparaíso, Chile! Anyone is welcome, and for undergraduates at Portland State University this course can fulfill the PSY 403: Outreach requirements…
Long skinny lightning in Siletz
“Sabía poco, pero al menos sabía eso: que nadie habla por los demás. Que aunque queramos contar historias ajenas terminamos siempre contando la historia propia”—Alejandro Zambra Storytelling and the brain Storytelling has a long history, and it’s a powerful and accepted method of teaching science. Research finds that curricula which…
Are “mini-brains” BRAINS?
Post by Austin Schubert, graduate student in the Neuroscience Graduate Program at OHSU. Austin is interested in the genetic and molecular basis of how the cerebral cortex develops in the context of health, disease, and evolution, and presented on brain organoids at NogginFest 2023. We all began as a single-celled…
Minibrains, Music, Estrogen, Art & Sleep!
NOGGINFEST 2023 😎 Brain Awareness! Music! Noggins! Art! “…the great events of the world take place in the brain…” — Oscar Wilde This was the SIXTH annual NogginFest – the largest student-run, accessible, all ages, public celebration of music, art, brain research, noggins and interdisciplinary neuroscience in the Pacific Northwest! Noggin’s…
Thank you for letting us touch your brains
This month we joined sophomore, junior and senior classrooms at David Douglas High School in Portland, Oregon, at the invitation of Psychology teachers Heather Murdock and Tracy Lind. We’d visited David Douglas in the past, before the pandemic, and both teachers reached out to arrange for our return! LEARN MORE:…
A Dive Into Habits
From Night Owls and Morning Birds to Motivating Those with ADHD Post by Sami Wagner, undergraduate in Psychology pursuing an Interdisciplinary Neuroscience minor at Portland State University. When I arrived at Hazelbrook Middle School for community outreach, I was a bit nervous because I was running a few minutes late. I have a bad habit…
Multilingual Brains!
Post by Nathalie Rios Carreon, undergraduate in Psychology pursuing an Interdisciplinary Neuroscience minor at Portland State University. I am a senior at Portland State University (PSU). I transferred to PSU from Chemeketa Community College (CCC). I went to CCC right after graduating from Woodburn High School. I was there on a soccer scholarship which covered…
Countering ACEs
Post by Becky Hunt, undergraduate in Psychology pursuing an Interdisciplinary Neuroscience minor at Portland State University. My outing with the fantastic NW Noggin team was my first extended in person social experience since before the COVID-19 pandemic. As someone who worked alone and attended online school for the past few years, witnessing the bright, curious…
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!.