The power of effective search engine placement due to rich, relevant, entertaining, information-driven content strikes again.

This time, though, it’s not by way of a popular cartoon character or movie merchandise. No loud corporate sponsors thrusting their wares, no pop-up ads or manipulative agendas catapulted by million-dollar marketing initiatives.

No. This time, the sole purpose appears so pure, genuine, and laudable, it makes this mother of one (with another cooking inside my belly as I type) dizzy with delight.

Say hello to www.BrainPOP.com.

Even the simplicity of the domain name is enough to make a Content Lover clap like wild.

According to the site: “BrainPOP is an educational program that provides curriculum-based content spanning seven main subjects including: Science, Math, English, Social Studies, Health, Arts & Music, and Technology.“

The site boasts a library of more than 600 short, easily digestible, Flash-animated learning clips, and an audience of more than 3.5 million smarties looking to get smarter.

Geared for grades 3-8 and the saintly educators who teach them, BrainPOP’s mini-movies cover everything from: Louis Armstrong to the Electromagnetic Spectrum; Terrorism to Carbon Dating; Acne to the Fibonacci Sequence; Etymology to Maya Angelou.

Best of all, hey’re all hosted by the friendly stylings of regular guy Tim, and Moby, his robot buddy.

The writing is laid back and engaging. Somehow, they’ve wrapped even the most complex information around simple storylines and impressive animations. With graphs, diagrams, and examples weaved throughout, the explanations deliver a lot of bang in the three or so minutes they hold your attention.

As for the design and usability? A feat in and of itself. BrainPOP is simply a remarkable example of how to offer a TON of valuable, thoughtful, purpose-driven information without overwhelming the audience for which it’s intended.

(Thoroughly, wonderfully, beautifully branded, too. They’ve definitely got some serious talent behind them!)

Founded in 1999 and backed up by some big names in education and media (including McGraw Hill, National Geographic, Time Warner, Yahoo, and Popular Science), BrainPOP now offers BrainPOP, Jr. (for K-3), and even BrainPOP Espanol.

Not surprisingly, they’ve earned a bunch of fancy media and education awards, and they’re bound to get a lot more. With quizzes, lesson plans, activity pages, and lots of help for both teachers and students (and all created with state and national education standards in mind), BrainPOP is a constantly growing marvel of ideas, education, and our every-expanding online culture.

Although it’s a subscription-based site (reasonably priced, by the way), they even exercise the Pink Spoon approach effectively - giving visitors a tasty sample of what they’ve got to offer, while letting us see how much more we could have if we pay the toll. I haven’t signed up yet, but after watching my 4 1/2-year-old son mesmerized by movies about Computer Viruses, Kinetic Energy, and Basic Probability, I think we’ll be subscribing soon enough.

Rock on, BrainPOP! You’ve got me addicted to learning in glorious, bite-sized chunks. Thanks for giving so much in so little time. That means a lot to a short-attention-spanned mom like me.

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Posted in All About Content |

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 5th, 2007 at 2:11 pm and is filed under All About Content. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.