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
What’s a “drink..?” At the Newmark for beer & brains
Can music orchestrate emotional intelligence?
The US wants to increase sleep deprivation and winter misery
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
A MESA Mindflex @ WSU-V!
We spent an occasionally stormy Saturday on the green, hilly campus of Washington State University in Salmon Creek, north of downtown Vancouver… WSU was hosting southwest Washington’s 2015 MESA Day, and students from area public schools were there to learn about academic and career opportunities in STEM fields, including neuroscience. MESA…
I Feel Your Pain @ Velo!
Another enthusiastic crowd of velocipedal neuroscience and art fans arrived at the incomparable Velo Cult for our first post-daylight savings NW Noggin event… Sunlight illuminated the ceiling-mounted bikes as Monique Smith, a graduate student in Behavioral Neuroscience at OHSU, presented fascinating research on empathy and chronic pain to an audience happily sipping…
A Synapse Sunrise at Skyview High
Sixteen committed NW Noggin volunteers from Washington State University Vancouver and PSU made an early morning journey to the enormous (2300 student!) Skyview High School in Salmon Creek, Washington, just down the road from WSU-V… We were there to meet students in three, 10th grade biology classrooms, along with their teacher Angela…
A full day of brains at OMSI
And a full house of NW Noggin volunteers, including Grace Hoinowski, Brittany Wouden, Chelsey Anderson, Sarah Neveux, Angela Morrelli, Angela Johnson, and Max Neideigh from WSU Vancouver, and Sarah Loftus, Lauren Wilgus, Amanda Yancy, Julian Rodriguez, Aldair Rodriguez, Alex Voigt, Allie Clark, Austin Howard, and Sam DeLuche from PSU… We…
NW Noggin @ the Newmark: Christof Koch
Our students from WSUV and PSU staffed a busy information table and new display, built by Jeff Leake, to speak about our outreach efforts in Portland and Vancouver at the Newmark Theater in downtown Portland on Monday night… We were there to hear renowned neuroscientist Christof Koch, the Chief Scientific Officer of the…
I feel your pain @ Velo Cult (3/19)
Chronic pain torments more Americans than heart disease, diabetes and cancer combined, yet its neurobiological basis remains a mystery, and successful treatment is rare. Researchers at OHSU and elsewhere are now exploring the powerful influence of social and environmental factors on the experience of chronic pain, and how understanding empathy…
Your creative, lying brain – at Velo!
This week our Velo crowd explored how memories depend on changes in neuron connections (i.e., synapses), and how these changes require expression of specific genes… Christie Pizzimenti, a graduate student in Behavioral Neuroscience at OHSU, enthusiastically described her research on how PTSD and substance use disorders involve powerful “excitatory” memory expression in the wrong contexts; that…
A Biochemical “Cascade”..!
Ten enthusiastic, multi-state, undergraduate NW Noggin volunteers from WSU Vancouver and Portland State University spent an entire day at Cascade Middle School in Vancouver, Washington – home to 900 curious and adventurous 6th through 8th graders! Our undergraduates gained tremendous real world experience in these classrooms, and enjoyed the chance to practice their…
Battle Ground Brains!
Our Noggin volunteers from WSU Vancouver and Portland State headed up interstate 5 today for an afternoon discussing neurons, networks, and the functional contributions of different brain regions with 180 curious students at CAM Junior and Senior High School in Battle Ground, WA… Our talented undergrads took charge of the microphone, and engagingly explained the…
Music @ Velo: Mouse syllables and guitar!
The neuroscience of sound chorused with the beauty of classical guitar in a joint, jam-packed NW Noggin sponsored performance at Velo Cult… Elena Mart, a graduate student in Neuroscience at WSU Vancouver worked alongside Ryan Walsh, an acclaimed classical guitarist and student of neuroscience from Portland State, to deliver an entertaining and informative…
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?.