Resources

  1. Manuals
  2. Competition Forms
  3. Letter to Parents
  4. Orientation Workshop Materials
  5. Mentor Information
  6. SimCity Resources
  7. Lessons Learned
  8. List of Penalties
  9. Where to Learn More

 

Manuals

Competition Forms

Electronic copies of FC forms (2011):

  1. Virtual City Benchmark Form (doc) / (pdf)
  2. Narrative Form (doc) / (pdf)
  3. Essay Form (doc) / (pdf)
  4. Expense Form (doc) / (pdf)
  5. Honor Statement (doc) / (pdf)
  6. Media Waiver Form (doc) / (pdf) (optional)
  7. Home School Affidavit (doc) / (pdf)

Note: All forms must be signed. Electronic signatures are acceptable provided the forms are submitted through the Team Center or as an attachment to an email from the signer.

Letter to Parents

Letter for teachers to print and send to parents of student competitors explaining the FC program and timeline (Sep-2011).

Orientation Workshops

Presentations and materials.

Mentor Information

Tips on Finding a Mentor: We recommend that schools and teams find their own mentors. Suggestions on where you might look to find a volunteer. If you are not successful, contact the Regional Coordinator for help.

If they are agreeable, mentors may work with more than one team.

Alternatively, 2-3 volunteers may team-up together to mentor the student team(s) (in other words, a "mentor" doesn't have to be one person, although one mentor must be named as the official team member).

Tips on How-To be a Mentor: Hints and suggestions from some of our most experienced mentors.

Bentley's Mentor Community has a mentor's tips, wiki, blog and other resources.

SimCity4 Resources

SimCity 4 Deluxe

Additional copies of SimCity 4 Deluxe (Oct-2011) - You may be able to obtain additional copies of SimCity from the FC National Program Manager. The program may also be available from local computer or electronics stores. However, the MAC version of SimCity 4 has been created specifically for FC and is only available through the region.

Manuals and tutorials: (Oct-2011) SimCity manuals and tutorial and N TX training information.

SimCity Starter Regions

(2011) This year, in order to simplify the program for Teams and Judges, teams must use a default starter region for their computer city design. Instructions and the region files are located in the Resources section of the national website. There is only one starter region - the medium city region. This regions contains the appropriate space for the team's city, surrounded by developed neighbor cities.

In submitting their SimCity designs, the teams need only submit their city - not the entire region.

SimCity Special Instructions

Backing up your work - When saving your SimCity file to a CD (or DVD or flashdrive), don't save directly to the CD. Use the (default) "Save" function in SimCity, then exit the program and copy the file from the hard drive to the CD. Always verify you have a valid file on the CD.

  1. For Windows XP and Vista your city files are stored in the "Documents" (or My Documents) folder.
  2. Go to "Documents" folder
  3. Open the "SimCity 4" folder
  4. Open the "Regions" folder
  5. Find your region (Medium City Region).
    • To save the whole region, right click on it and "send to" CD R/W drive.
    • To save just the city, open the region folder and find your city file (file extension .sc4). Then right click on it and "send to" CD R/W drive.
  6. Verify your region or city is now saved to the CD

Submitting your city to the Team Center - You will upload your virtual city through the Team Center. The process for locating the file to upload is similar to Backing up your work:

  1. For Windows XP and Vista your city files are stored in the "Documents" (or My Documents) folder.
  2. Go to "Documents" folder
  3. Open the "SimCity 4" folder
  4. Open the "Regions" folder
  5. Open the region folder (Medium City Region) and find your city file (file extension .sc4)

Moving your city to another computer to continue playing. In this case, we recommend that you move the entire region (neighbor deals and connections are associates with the region, not just a single city). Use the procedure above for backing up the entire region to a CD (or DVD or flashdrive). Then install your CD on the other computer and:

  1. Copy the region file from the CD to region folder (in Documents\SimCity 4\Regions\)
  2. Start the SimCity 4 game
  3. "Load" your region
  4. Click on the city-square and start playing

Changing your city name.

  1. In SimCity 4, press CTRL+X - a textbox will appear in the upper left corner of the screen.
  2. Type in "whererufrom NAME" where NAME is the new city name.
  3. Note: this is the only SimCity "cheat code" allowed in the Future City program.

Lessons Learned

  1. This project takes time, so plan accordingly.
    • Teacher: 30-40 hours
    • Mentors: 20-40 hours
    • Students:
      • Design city: 18-20 hours
      • Build model: 40-60 hours
      • Essay: 8 hours
      • Presentation: 7 hours
  2. Don't wait to start working on the essay and model! Begin working on the model and the essay before you turn in the SimCity city design. And, get as much done before the Christmas break as you can.
  3. Keep parents informed. Make sure parents of the student competitors know about the competition requirements and schedule. Send the letter to parents or your own form home with the students.
  4. You need to be successful on all phases of the project to win. While the SimCity is the most fun, it only counts for a quarter of the total score.
    • City evaluation - 5%
    • SimCity map or city design - 20%
    • Model - 30%
    • Essay and narrative - 22.5%
    • Presentation - 22.5%
  5. Penalty points for late work won't kill your chances. If you need a couple more days to complete your city design or essay, you might want to consider turning your work in late and accepting the penalty points (they count for less than 4% of total score). See below.
  6. When you start SimCity, build slowly and wisely. Your new SimCity city is a balancing act between income and expenses for building infrastructure. Don't build more than you can afford. There are several good tutorials online and you can also refer to Section B of the Handbook.
  7. If you are working on the project as a class, you must select the three students who will represent you at the competition (for the presentation). Consider holding tryouts and/or letting the students vote on who to select.
  8. Teachers and mentors act as advisors. The students are the designers (no matter how wrong their decisions appear to be).
  9. Consider bringing in topic area experts (for example: materials specialists or urban designers) to give a brief presentation.
  10. Models can be fragile and easily damaged during transit or setup. Have a small repair kit ready (glue, tape, screwdriver, staplers, etc.) in case emergency repairs are necessary.
  11. Read the Handbook and Rules for North Texas Competition.

List of Penalties

  • Late or missing work. See Schedule for specific dates.
    • SimCity file and Essay/Narrative after due date - Minus 5 points
    • SimCity files after interim deadline - Minus 10 points
    • SimCity and Essay/Narrative after final deadline - will not be scored at all
    • Note: Missing work does not disqualify a team.
  • Incomplete or missing Computer Score Sheet, Narrative or Essay Form, or Honor Statement (includes missing the teacher or mentor signature) - Minus 2 points
    • Late forms - Minus 1 point
  • Exceeding the maximum word limit
    • On the Research Essay - Minus 10 points
    • On the Narrative - Minus 2 points
  • Over budget or undocumented expenses - Model and presentation costs exceeding $100 or missing Expense Form - Minus 15 points
    • Incomplete expense form - missing receipts, not accounting for all major items, missing teacher or mentor signature - Minus 5 points
  • Model ID - Missing all or part of Model ID - Minus 1-5 points
  • Model size - Exceeding the max dimensions for the model in any direction, at any time during the presentation - Minus 15 points
  • Presentation size - Exceeding the max dimensions for presentation and demonstration materials - Minus 15 points
  • Presentation time - Exceeding the max presentation time - Minus 5 points
  • Unsportsmanlike conduct by team members or guests (includes rude behavior to judges, competitors, or disruption of another team's judging session) - Minus 20 points
  • Destruction of another team's model or presentation materials - Disqualification

Where to Learn More