King obtained undergraduate (1950) and graduate degrees (1953) in physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and soon after he was appointed to the faculty there. As a young professor, he helped produce and acted in several PSSC educational movies, including Time and Clocks, Interference of Photons, Size of Atoms from an Atomic Beam Experiment, and Velocity of Atoms. King also developed innovative courses such as Concentrated Study, Project Lab, and Corridor Lab, which emphasized hands-on learning, independence of thought, and the scientific method.
