Pioneering Parents: Annelle King, Rock City Robots
Annelle King’s 4-year-old, Matthew, talked her into a buying a toy robot labeled “8 and up.” Afterward, automatons took over her living room, and some would say her life.
Not that the Little Rock mother of three minds.
King, who gave up classroom teaching to homeschool her children, has coached a kids’ robotics team for nine years, and Matthew is now a high school junior planning a double major.
“Electrical engineering and computer engineering,” King says with an infectious chuckle. “It has been his bread and butter, and it has been good for his sisters,” which includes Katie, nearly 21, and Jana, just shy of 16. “But starting Rock City Robots was a huge challenge for me.”
Ever since Matthew got his Lego Mindstorms robot, the Kings have been immersed. They created central Arkansas’ inaugural FIRST Lego League team before graduating to FIRST Tech Challenge, for older children, and eventually to FIRST Robotics Competition, or FRC.
“By FRC, the robots were 120 pounds, but we still met in the living room. We have a workbench in there with a drill press and a band saw.” She didn’t mind the intrusion. “You know, my kids will only be young for a short time. This let my son be the teacher.
“I knew STEM was important,” King adds. “In homeschooling, there are opportunities for athletics and activities like the yearbook, but if I wanted something in this area, we had to do it ourselves. There were few STEM opportunities, not just in homeschooling but in central Arkansas in general.”
So King, a daughter of missionaries who grew up in Africa before returning to Texas and graduating from Baylor, enlisted her children and their friends for the Lego League team. After five years, “we moved up to FTC,” where the competition area was 12 feet by 12 feet, King says.
As the team rose, so did the costs, $7,000 to $10,000 for an FRC team, King says. “The goal is to find a sponsor or grant money. For three years we had grants, but this season we lost our funding. We had a choice: Do you put it on a credit card, or keep working on funding?”
The team chose to sit out for a year. “You’re not just teaching building a robot. There are finances, being responsible,” King says, though she hopes the team can resume if funding becomes available.
She praises her husband, realtor Timothy King, for his support, and Alina Polta and Cindy Fong, her fellow Lego team coaches. “You can’t let fear paralyze your goals,” King says. “It’s easy to encourage kids in areas where you excel. But my son wanted a robot, and to join a Lego league. That was uncharted territory. But watching his enthusiasm, I had to let him take me there, and to bring his sisters and others with me. It’s been the best thing that could have happened.”
To learn more about the Rock City Robots team, visit RockCityRobots.com. To learn more about FIRST Robotics leagues and competitions, visit FirstInspires.org.