From: info@futurecity.org
Sent: Tuesday, October 06, 2009 12:08
To: Sallen@ieee.org
Subject: ***[Possible UCE]*** Future City Newsletter - 10/06/2009
Fall 2009 Future City Newsletter

2009 - 2010 National Engineers Week Future City® Competition

E-Newsletter

Welcome to the 19th National Engineers Week Future City® Competition. On behalf of the entire staff we want to welcome you and let you know if you need any assistance we are here to help.

Whether this is your first experience with Future City or you have been with us before we are excited that you are part of this amazing program and want to thank you for your dedication and time to ensure a successful competition for your students.

We had a team work hard over the summer to rework what was called the 'Teachers Handbook' into what we hope is a more user-friendly 'Program Handbook'. For our returning educational professionals please make sure you review the new handbook very carefully as there are several changes in the program this year. Two of the biggest are:

1. Mandatory Regions for your SimCity 4T, which can be downloaded from our web site - http://www.futurecity.org/resources_simcity-starter-regions.shtm.
2. Use of an alternate presenter for the Regional and/or National Competition due to health or family emergency.

Unfortunately we made several handbook mistakes that need correction. They include:

1. Narrative Rubric - was omitted from the original printing but was put in as a loose insert. It is also posted on our web page - http://www.futurecity.org/docs/2010_City_Narrative_Rubric.pdf
2. Team Presentation of Future City Design and Model Rubric (Pg 44) - I. Creativity - Strike 20 points as this is included in the 50 points from the previous page
3. Future City Model Rubric (Pg. 37) - III. City Design should be 50 points.

National staff apologize for these errors and have corrected the electronic versions.

TEACHER SURVEY

We are asking teachers to take a pre-competition survey this year. If you wish to participate please cut and paste the five survey questions that follow into an email, answer the questions and then return it to info@futurecity.org . For those that participate there will be random drawings for classroom prizes.



1. How did you find out about the 2009 - 2010 Future City program?

Participated previously
Another teacher
A parent
Read an article
Received a brochure
Contacted directly by program organizers
Other

2.Will this be an in-class or extracurricular program for you?
In-class
Extra-curricular/after-school
Other

3. Are you most likely to refer to the program materials .
In print
Online
Equally via print/online

4. At this time, do you intend to follow the program with the purpose of entering the January regional competition?
Yes
No
Undecided

5. If no or undecided, how will you use the materials?
Self-contained classroom
Cross-curricular
Science/technology class
Gifted program
School-sanctioned extracurricular
Other

SimCity 4 DeluxeT

The Future City Competition is using SimCity 4 DeluxeT software for its second year. Last year we had some growing pains mostly dealing with what we called "administrator rights issues". Many school computers do not allow gaming or other software to be downloaded onto school computers without permission. We found that this problem can only be solved by having a school IT professional assign temporary rights to download software.

Some people have had problems with the actual placement of "game components and plug-ins" onto their hard-drive, which is necessary to run the game. All downloaded information must be put onto the hard-drive, specifically in the SimCity 4 folder that the game creates. There are very clear instructions on how to accomplish this and successfully run the game on the web-site and program handbook.

NEW FOR 2009-10
This year we have introduced "starter regions" to the competition. Teams will now choose either small, medium or large regions. They will then create their city in the space provided in that region. This will allow teams to focus on their city and not have to build a whole region. Instructions on how to download "starter regions" in both Mac and PC versions are posted on the Future City web-site.

Finally, for those who need extra information about playing the game in addition to the resources posted on the web-site, there is the Prima SimCity 4 Deluxe Official Strategy guide that can be found online or in local bookstores.






Your National Staff

Bill Knight Alex Underwood
National Program Manager National Program Coordinator
bknight@futurecity.org alexunderwood@futurecity.org




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The Future City Competition is a national educational outreach program of the National Engineers Week Foundation. For more information on the Future City Competition visit our website at www.futurecity.org.

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