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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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
First graders grow dendrites!
We headed to Woodstock Elementary School in southeast Portland, where teacher Joyce Iliff told us her first grade students were learning about dendrites! Joyce wasn’t kidding – they were a very informed and energetic class of kids… We began by introducing ourselves, and described where we work and study. We also explaining…
Psychostimulants at Velo May 27th!
How does methamphetamine affect genes, behavior, and development? How does the adolescent brain respond to psychostimulants..? Emily Eastwood from OHSU, and Tara Williams from PNCA, discuss the science – and art – of development and drugs at Velo Cult on Wednesday, May 27th, from 6-8pm… Come join us for this…
Protecting Noggins @ the Newmark
We gathered quite a crowd of volunteers at the Newmark Theater in downtown Portland this week, to staff our outreach table, assist the OHSU Brain Institute in collecting surveys, and listen to a remarkable lecture by Robert Stern, an expert on brain injuries and sports at Boston University… Dr. Stern was featured in a…
Building Brains @ McCoy: Day Three
Our third visit to one of our favorite classrooms, in a converted house on NE MLK… Our dedicated neuro-educator crew from WSU Vancouver and Portland State returned to school on Monday, to talk about synapses, neurotransmitters and drugs… Sarah Loftus from PSU took the lead, using a worksheet she’d designed to introduce…
The Rake’s Brain @ PAM!
We enjoyed an artistic science-packed educational evening in the creative surroundings of the Portland Art Museum on Thursday night, as featured speakers for a “Remixing the Museum: STEAM and New Media” event… We were guests of Hana Layson, the School and Teacher Programs Specialist, Kristin Bayans, the Interpretive Media Specialist, and Phillippa Pitts, a…
Neurophilosophy @ the Newmark
Once again, thanks to the generosity of the OHSU Brain Institute, we brought our busy outreach volunteers to an extraordinary lecture by Patricia Churchland at the Newmark Theater in downtown Portland this week… We staffed another NW Noggin table, and had great fun introducing theater-goers to the creative joys of building pipe cleaner…
Giant neurons @ McCoy: Day Two
Sarah Neveux from WSU Vancouver Neuroscience took the teaching lead this morning, and focused on the neuron, that key cellular component of the complex networks that make up our remarkable nervous systems… We began by reviewing the cortical lobes, and then delved into a discussion of how the 200 billion or…
Healthy Noggins @ Jeff
Our energetic Noggin crew joined Mark Rutledge-Gorman from the Portland Alcohol Research Center (PARC) and a host of other presenters at Jefferson High School in Portland this week, for a Health Fair in the cafeteria… Allie Clark and Rosalie Lee from Portland State University, Angela Gonzalez from WSU Vancouver, and Alfredo Zuniga…
Gray matter @ McCoy
Today we met fifteen sharp high school students at McCoy Academy, a school in Northeast Portland that serves students who have left Portland Public Schools, for (according to teacher Kim Keyes) more structure and smaller class sizes… A group of NW Noggin undergraduates, including Rosalie Lee, Alex Voigt (pictured above)…
A Zombie Feast: Imaging Brains @ Velo!
Sam Carpenter, from the Fair Neuroimaging Lab at OHSU, along with Kathryn McAnalley from PNCA, artfully informed and entertained a crowd of bike, brain and beer aficionados in Northeast Portland on a sunny Thursday night… They talked of images, and brains, and how what we know and can learn about the relationship between…
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?.