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On The Rebound: David Jones & Ed Basconi

By on March 17, 2009 in Ideas


BusinessWeek:

David Jones and Ed Basconi had worked together at an electronics production plant in Johnson City, Tenn., since the early 1980s, weathering three different owners: Texas Instruments, Siemens, and EPIC Technologies.

But with production moving to Mexico, Jones took a buyout in 2007, and Basconi is one of a handful of employees staying on until the plant closes.

In 2007 the pair began proto-typing the KitBook, a patented product to teach kids about science in a hands-on method, with gadgets such as circuits, lamps, and motors embedded in the book.

With the help of friends and family working in their assembly plant, they sold 1,000 KitBooks last year to schools, camps, and home-schoolers.

Jones and Basconi hope to expand the concept from kids’ textbooks to KitBooks for hobbies, vocational, corporate, and military training. “Our ultimate long-term goal is to be the hands-on version of the Dummy books,” Jones says.

Photo by Edamar, Inc..

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  • Jaclyn

    It is great that they are making those kind of book’s. a lot of children learn better with that sort of hands on experience rather then someone speaking to them or them reading it out of a plain book.

  • http://www.KitBook.com David Jones

    We agree, Jaclyn. In fact, an independent university study of our KitBooks in the classroom shows that students using KitBooks to learn electric circuits scored 32% higher on a standrads-based test than those who learned the “traditional” way with loose wires and batteries and bulbs.

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