Twig World

History

Twig first launched its digital content at the BETT show in January 2011. Initially 250 films were available, covering aspects of Chemistry, Biology, Physics and Earth Science. The films were around 3-minutes long and aimed at students aged between 10 and 16.

There are now over 2,500 3-minute films available in science, geography and maths. Each film comes with support learning materials including transcripts, quizzes and downloadable images.

Prior to Twig’s public launch in January 2011, the company was known as LL Online. LL Online worked in conjunction with Learning Teaching Scotland. To date, Twig World has continued to work with Learning Teaching Scotland (now renamed Education Scotland), and renewed its contract to supply the resource as part of Glow (Scottish Schools National Intranet) for a further three years in December 2011. In 2015 this contract was renewed by Education Scotland for one year with the option for a further one-year extension. Twig is known as GlowScience in Scotland and is available to all Glow users.

In January 2016, Imperial College London announced a £3.5m Series B investment into Twig World representing the first major Series B investment by a European university into an Edtech start-up.

Twig World has two UK offices, a digital production facility in Glasgow and a commercial office in London.

Products

Twig’s range of resources currently cover maths, science and geography totaling over 2,500 films, which range from 1 to 7 minutes in length. They are made for teachers and pupils at Key Stage 1 Key Stage 2, Key Stage 3 and GCSE levels and their curriculum equivalents around the world.

The majority of Twig World's films can be divided into “core” and “context” films. “Core” films are focus on key curriculum learning points, whilst “context” films cover real-life applications and extensions of the core learning points, as well as aspects of science history. Twig World has also created a full library of "glossary" films, covering key scientific terms, which are 1-minute long.

The films are produced in Twig World’s production facility in Glasgow, using archive footage from a range of sources, including the BBC Motion Gallery, Getty Images, NASA, CBS, Science Photo Library and the US National Archives. Films are scripted to make them curriculum and age relevant, and are produced in conjunction with content-relevant academics and educators. Animations, graphics and text are produced and incorporated into the films during post-production after which, voiceovers are added. Voiceover and graphics, as distinct tracks, are easily re-voiced, allowing for re-versioning into other languages.

All films are accompanied by a set of learning materials. These include transcripts of the films, key learning points, photographic and diagrammatic resources, and handouts for pupils that include detailed notes on the topic, as well as quizzes and extension questions. Learning materials vary with different products and subject areas.

Twig

The secondary resources from Twig World, called Twig, are available via the website www.twig-world.com. Through username and password access, schools and pupils can stream film content from the site as well as access and download learning materials.

Twig for Science

Twig's original product was a package entitled Twig Science. It is a subscription package that offers access for students and teachers to Twig's range of science films and accompanying learning materials.

Twig for Geography

Following Twig Science in 2011, Twig released a package of Geography content focusing on Earth Science and Human Geography.

Twig for Maths

In September 2012 Twig World launched an upgraded product, Twig. New content was added to support teaching and learning in Maths and Geography, relating curriculum content to real world events and stories. An additional 500 short 90-second films were also added defining key scientific terms in the Science Glossary.

Twig Science Experiments

In September 2013 an additional 81 sets of films and learning materials were produced and made available on the Twig World website.

Tigtag

The primary resources from Twig World are known under the brand Tigtag. This content is accessible via the website www.tigtagworld.com. These resources are also aimed at school use, with film streaming, lesson plans, activity suggestions and interactive features available online.

Tigtag for Science

Tigtag Science was Twig World's launch product for primary and elementary schools, designed to support teaching of KS2 science and its global equivalents. This content supports schools through a comprehensive approach to Science that contains i. Science background for teachers ii. lesson planning ideas and iii. classroom multimedia content.

People & Places

Launched in 2014, People and Places added a new Geography module for Tigtag and includes the same range of films and learning materials to help support the teaching of Geography in the classroom.

Tigtag Junior

Designed specifically for students aged 4–7, Tigtag Junior (www.tigtagjunior.com) is Twig World's latest addition to the Tigtag brand. For the first time Tigtag Junior, as well as including the films and lesson materials associated with Tigtag, contains interactive games and puzzles for the classroom.

Reach Out CPD

In 2014, Twig World, through their Primary resource Tigtag, partnered with Imperial College London to create Reach Out CPD, an online professional development resource to support Primary School teachers with Science. Since launching in late 2014, Reach Out CPD has been adopted by over 5,000 schools across the UK.

University of Glasgow

An evaluation of GlowScience was carried out by the SCRE Centre and the School of Education at the University of Glasgow, with their final report being released in April 2011. The evaluation was commissioned by Learning Teaching Scotland and was conducted between October 2010 and February 2011, with part of its remit being to ascertain the extent to which GlowScience resources were supporting teachers and helping to engage pupils.

In the report, GlowScience resources “were deemed to be of excellent quality and of a high standard, trustworthy, suitably tailored for children and young people, and highly effective teaching and learning resources”.

University of Lancaster

Research carried by Dr Don Passey, from Lancaster University’s Department of Educational Research in 2013, showed that Twig films make Maths and Science lessons more memorable in the longer term. Dr Passey’s research set out to explore some of the issues around learning science in relation to shorter and longer term learning. He concluded that there were strong indications that:

Video is particularly good for supporting understanding of concept-based topics (such as Maths and Science) Video is useful for supporting science concepts with those who have lower levels of interest in the subject Video is useful for supporting science concepts with those who start within a mid-range of test scores

Press and Media

Various reviews of Twig World resources have been published by educational press and online media. This includes reviews by practising teachers as well as educational experts, from publications such as the TES and Teach Primary.

2011

2012

2013

2014

2015

2016

Scotland

In Scotland, Twig is available for free to all Scottish state schools via the schools' platform Glow. The product is known in Scotland as Twig On Glow (formerly Glow Science). This is possible through a partnership with Education Scotland (formerly Learning Teaching Scotland) as Twig On Glow.

Rest of the UK

Twig provides its digital content to schools in the UK through an online subscription service, offered directly to schools and local authorities.

International

In late 2011, Twig World announced a partnership deal with Carolina Biological, making Twig World's products available to more than 180,000 teachers and 15,000 schools in the USA. This was followed in early 2012 by the announcement of a partnership deal with Benesse Corporation of Japan, with films in Japanese language being made available to students from April 2012.

In 2012, Twig partnered with Santillana to distribute its products in institutions across Spain and Latin America. Santillana is the largest educational distributor in these areas with over 40,000 educational establishments and a 30% market share in Spain, Peru, Argentina, Chile and Colombia.

Twig World also distributes its content directly to schools in Australia and South Africa through its online subscription service. In mid-2012, Twig World partnered with Doosan education publishers to distribute Twig in Korea through their home learning.

Since early 2013, Twig World has worked with Abril Educacao to distribute materials to schools and sistemas in Brazil.