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
Skyhawk Synapses @ Skyridge!
Je pense, donc je suis: Traversing tricky topics through outreach
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
Upcoming! Song of the Noggin: How your brain processes sound, speech and music
NW Noggin is thrilled to continue our ongoing Science and Art event collaboration with Velo Cult Bike Shop! Join us January 22nd from 6:00-8:00pm Sound Matters! Join presenter Elena Mahrt, a PhD candidate at WSU Vancouver, as she discusses the beauty and complexity of everyday sounds, and how our…
Brains for 437 @ HeLa High!
Our skilled undergraduate outreach participants, a total of twelve from WSU Vancouver and Portland State University, led multiple discussions of brain structure and function for wave upon wave of high school students at HeLa High School in Vancouver this morning… We arrived early, and split into two rooms: the library for…
Brain Health at Sabin K-8
Our Noggin volunteers from WSU Vancouver and Portland State spent two afternoons speaking with 6th through 8th graders at Sabin K-8, a PPS school in Northeast Portland… We spoke in four Health classes about adolescent brain development, and concrete steps we all can take to improve brain health, including good sleep,…
NW Noggin visits DC!
For the annual Society for Neuroscience conference, where eight undergraduate participants from WSU Vancouver and PSU presented a poster on outreach activities from summer 2014! A pdf of the NW Noggin poster is available here… SfN Poster NW Noggin 2014 In the photo above are Merri Hansen, Amanda Yancey, Bill Griesar,…
Waltzing Mice @ Velo!
Amanda Barkley-Levenson, a graduate student in Behavioral Neuroscience at OHSU, and Kelsey Holland-Rayle, an illustration major at PNCA (the Pacific Northwest College of Art), teamed up this week to present a lively introduction to the fascinating history of how mice studied in genetic and behavioral research came to be… The tale (tail?) involved…
Drugs, Genes & Waltzing Mice!
Tales from Genetic Research! Mouse fanciers developed unusual, multi-colored, alcohol drinking, even “waltzing” mice – while scientists sought out rodents with unique behaviors and genes. Amanda Barkley-Levenson, a graduate student in Behavioral Neuroscience at OHSU, and Kelsey Holland-Rayle, a student of illustration at the Pacific Northwest College of Art, will…
NW Noggin at the Gardner School of Arts & Sciences
Today our intrepid Noggin volunteers from WSU Vancouver and Portland State University came to the Gardner School of Arts and Sciences, literally just down the road from WSUV. The middle schoolers have been learning about their brains, with help from their teacher Caitlin Littlefield, and we enjoyed a lively discussion…
Velo Cult: Megan Slaker & Dawn Nielson draw a memorable crowd!
Almost 100 people piled into Velo Cult on Thursday night (10/23) to learn about memories, including drug memories, and innovative efforts to disrupt such memories by removing chemical scaffolding around synapses known as “perineuronal nets…” Megan Slaker, a graduate student in Neuroscience at Washington State University Vancouver, led the crowd in a spirited…
NW Noggin heads to McMinnville!
Four undergraduate neuroscience outreach volunteers from WSU Vancouver (Chelsey Anderson, Matt Wadzita, Grace Hoinowski, and Angela Johnson), and one accomplished Clark County high school student (Alli Probst), brought brains and art projects to Patton Middle School in McMinnville, Oregon on Friday, where 270 8th graders were reading the book “Flowers for Algernon.” We met…
2014 summer outreach complete!
This summer our NW Noggin graduate and undergraduate students from OHSU, PSU, WSUV and PNCA were very busy, both in the lab, in the classroom, in the art studio – and in the community! They were busy collaborating with each other, and learning from each other – and together, 35 of…
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?.