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
Synapsing with Summer @ SAIL!
Drink Together, Stay Together?
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
Cougars and Tigers and Brains!
NW Noggin volunteers from WSU Vancouver headed north to Battle Ground High School, home of the Tigers, to talk about brains with 75 or so students who had spent their morning dissecting fetal pigs..! Neuroscience and Psychology students Bradley Mahoney, Chelsey Taylor Anderson, and Jayme Anderson, along with Bill and Jeff, went…
Revealing Curves @ Velo April 30th!
Revealing curves: Imaging the human brain Pictures of the brain in action are everywhere these days, but what do these fMRI images really represent? How are they acquired, and what do they tell us about how the brain works? Sam Carpenter from the Fair lab at OHSU, and Kathryn McAnalley…
A Skyview Brain-Storm!
A healthy crowd of committed undergraduate volunteers gathered early this morning at Skyview High, home of the Storm, for our fourth and final day in Biology classrooms… We are going to miss our students, whom we’ve gotten to know over the past month, through our ongoing series of Thursday visits. Art activities, short introductory lectures, and direct,…
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……
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?.