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
Synapses to Shares
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
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…
Can music orchestrate emotional intelligence?
Post by Veronika Carranza, undergraduate in Psychology pursuing an Interdisciplinary Neuroscience minor at Portland State University. Why is music so timeless? Why do people still listen to music thought up by a child more than 200 years ago? Why do we learn the letters of the alphabet through song? Why are some parents so adamant…
Aspiring to Assist
Post by Cameron McGrew, undergraduate in Psychology pursuing an Interdisciplinary Neuroscience minor and a Chemistry minor at Portland State University. The sun shone brightly on a warm spring morning as I opened my eyes, and contemplated the day ahead. I thought about the breakfast I’d fix, the coffee I’d pour, and the class I’d join…
A Vignette of Voles
Post and artwork by Jasmine Loeung, undergraduate in Psychology pursuing an Interdisciplinary Neuroscience minor at Portland State University. Jasmine is a research technician in the Sleep and Health Applied Research Program (SHARP) Lab at the Portland Veteran’s Affairs Medical Center and Oregon Health & Science University. “Nothing has such power to broaden the mind as…
How does Narcan save a life?
Post by Natalie Partipilo, undergraduate in Psychology pursuing an Interdisciplinary Neuroscience minor at Portland State University. Natalie is a Northwest Noggin outreach volunteer, BUILD EXITO scholar and a clinical researcher at Novel Interventions in Children’s Healthcare (NICH) at Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU). When I arrived at Oregon City…
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!.