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
Synaptic sprouting @ Skyview!
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
Pre-K, Fish and Logger Lobes!
Our all-volunteer Northwest Noggineers hit the road this spring, leaving busy labs and lecture halls for the wet and stormy mouth of the Columbia River, to learn from bar pilots, cardiologists, graduate students in neuroscience, curious pre-K kids and hundreds of engaged 9th – 12th graders with challenging questions from…
Synapses and Seconds in Sisters
LEARN MORE: NW Noggin Brings Neuroscience Fun to Sisters Students “Forged out of electricity, born ready to run, drunk on the promise of new grass, young evening sun, never quite solving the mystery of where the ropes come from.” — Beth Wood, excerpt from The Ropes We left the drenched Willamette…
Signal from Noise on the Oregon Coast
“If you want to find the secrets of the universe, think in terms of energy, frequency and vibration.” – Nikola Tesla We are immersed in waves! The world is full of energy, and much of it can be described and measured as waves. In Astoria this week, at the turbulent mouth…
The Art & Science of Nostalgia
Post by Hosanna Broderick, undergraduate in Speech & Hearing Sciences pursuing an Interdisciplinary Neuroscience minor at Portland State University. I was born in San Francisco and though I grew up north of the bay, I spent a lot of time in the city during my adolescent and young adult years. I experience profound nostalgia…
The Magic of Music
Post by Jadyn Harris, undergraduate in Psychology pursuing an Interdisciplinary Neuroscience minor at Portland State University. Jadyn is a welcome and regular contributor to outreach visits through Northwest Noggin. “Perhaps the most important problem in neuroscience is understanding what it means to be human, and music is an essential part of this.” — Robert Zatorre…
How did we get the brain?
Post by Mina Sattari, undergraduate in Psychology pursuing an Interdisciplinary Neuroscience minor at Portland State University. Mina is a welcome and regular contributor to outreach visits through Northwest Noggin. This winter I’ve had the pleasure of participating in outreach at Sacajawea Elementary School in Vancouver, Washington and at Leodis V. McDaniel High School, Hosford Middle School…
Brain Awareness for ALL
We started Northwest Noggin as parents in 2012, exploring summer educational opportunities offered by the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI), “Saturday Academy” and other nonprofits. These programs were prohibitively expensive, and with two kids each and limited income they were not accessible options for either Noggin co-founder at…
When I Grow Up: Learning, Memory, and LTP
Post by Asha Powell-Stormberg, undergraduate in Science pursuing an Interdisciplinary Neuroscience minor at Portland State University. Asha is a welcome and regular contributor to outreach visits through Northwest Noggin. Noggin @ Ron Russell Middle School I recently joined my fellow Noggin volunteers at Ron Russell Middle School in the David Douglas Public School District…
Wrestling with Expectations, and Brains
Post by Julian Rodriguez, undergraduate in Psychology pursuing an Interdisciplinary Neuroscience minor at Portland State University. Julian is a welcome, regular contributor to outreach through NW Noggin, and is currently seeking grants to support arts integration in STEM. When we arrive in K-12 classrooms in the Pacific Northwest with our real human noggins we pretty…
You belong in research
Post by Kayla McDaniel, undergraduate in Psychology pursuing an Interdisciplinary Neuroscience minor at Portland State University. Kayla is a full-time Research Assistant working in Dr. Miranda Lim’s Sleep & Health Applied Research Program (SHARP) laboratory at the Portland Veteran’s Administration Medical Center and OHSU. “We must have perseverance and above all confidence in ourselves. We must believe…
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!.