Introduction
this website is the headquarters for the Future City Competition judging. Once inside, you may:
- Download and score SimCity entries
- Download and score Essay and City Narrative entries
- Access judges' resources and background information
- View results and performance data (after the competition)
STEP 1: Enroll to be a Judge
In the menu, click on the "Enroll" link to go to the "Enrollment Form."
Red indicates information that is mandatory.
Choose a username that you will remember.
Select your judging assignment. You may select as many as you want - except that "Model/Presentation," "Special Awards," and "Judging Coordinator" are mutually exclusive (you may only select one of them).
Click on the button "Continue Enrollment" to submit your information to the system. In a few minutes, you will receive an email with your temporary password to log-in and finalize your enrollment.
STEP 2:
Log-in using the username you selected and the temporary password in the emailed "Enrollment Message."
The first page you see will ask you to change your password to something you will easily remember.
Change Your Password
In the menu, click on the link "Change Password" to go to the Change Access Password page. Your password must have a minimum of 6 characters, and contain both letters and numbers. You will have to enter the password twice to ensure there are no typos.
STEP 3: Question List for Security Verification
The system will ask you to answer 5 questions that will be used to verify your identity in the case you forget your password or it has been some time since you have logged on. You may answer 5 questions on the list of basic questions or you may create your own question and provide an answer. A link from the menu will take you directly to the security question page.
Forgot Your Password?
Click on "Forget Password" on the login page. This will take you to a page where you will need to enter your username. The system will then pick two of the security questions you previously answered and ask you to provide a matching answer.
Click on reset password and the system will email you a temporary password in a few minutes. Login using the temporary password and go to Change Password to change it to something you will remember.
Judge Home Page
This page lists the areas the Judge has agreed to score (simulation, essay, model, presentation, etc.). And, for each area, the page will have a separate section with links to instructions and rubrics relevant to the scoring tasks. It will also have the drop-dead due date for judging the entries.
Successful Scoring
6th - 8th graders
Please Please remember as you are scoring or interacting with the students that they are in the 6-8th grades and they have been working on their future city design for at least three months. While their work may seem mature, their vocabulary and emotions may not be. Be understanding and diplomatic.
Deliverables
The student teams are scored on five deliverables:
- Computer simulation of their future city -- this comprises two scores: one a self-scored evaluation of required city elements such as minimum population, age of city, well-being of the population, pollution, etc. The second score is from the judges looking at the SimCity file and determining on how well the team has designed the city and its amenities. Total score = 100 points.
- Research essay -- the team must research and write an essay (700-1000 words) on the assigned engineering problem. Essay includes a bibliography and a separate City Narrative (300-500 words) describing the city and its features. Total score = 90 points.
- Physical model -- the team must build a table-top-sized 3-D scale model of a portion of their city. The model must contain at least one moving part. In addition, the team may not spend more than $100 building their model ($100 is total budget allowed for the model and presentation, combined), and as a result the model will contain many recycled items repurposed as building materials. Total score = 120 points.
- Oral presentation -- the team must present their city design, using the model as a demonstration aid, to a panel of technical professionals. The first half of the presentation (5-7 minutes) is rehearsed, the second half is Q&A. The materials used to support the presentation (including the model) cannot exceed $100. Total score = 90 points.
Rubrics
Scoring rubrics exist for all of the judge-scored portions of the competition. The rubrics have been designed to help the judges consistently assess the entries and to help the teachers understand what is required for success. Judges should consult the rubrics when scoring any and all of the entries.
- Questions on the rubric and criteria - the rubric tries, within reason, to account for most of the commonly occurring scoring situations. Obviously, it cannot account for all. Judges will have to use their experience and expertise to resolve conflicts and come up with a score. However, if you have any questions, contact your judging coordinator or regional coordinator for clarification.
Rate, not Rank
Using the rubrics, the judges should be able to impartially evaluate all of the teams' work. Please remember that you are "rating" the entries, not ranking them.
Acceptable Scores
Based on the rubrics, only certain values are allowed as scores of specific criteria. And, only whole numbers are allowed - no fractions. Frequently, if the web-based judging system won't accept your scores, it is because one or more of the values is outside the allowable range.
Averaging Judges' Scores
In order to eliminate as much bias as possible, each entry is scored by multiple judges. Those individual scores are then averaged to obtain a single score for the team's deliverable.
Composite Scores
The averaged scores for each of the team's deliverables are then added together to obtain a composite score. Note: penalty points may also be assessed by the regional coordinator for various rule infractions. The team with the highest composite score is the winner.
Judges Have the Final Say (sort of)
By FC rules, judges' rulings are final. Caveats:
- An individual judge's score is averaged with other judges.
- The score on one deliverable is only a fraction of the team's total points.
- Penalty points may be assessed for infractions of the rules or late work.
- So, while a judge may think, based on the work he/she has evaluated, that one team deserves to win; there are several other variables that might affect the outcome.
Resources
The resources page (see left-menu) contains links to:
- Judge's Manual
- SimCity Judging Tutorial
- SimCity default region(s)s
Judging Tasks
Judging SimCity
Start with the Judges Home Page. There is a section on the page for City Simulation assignments listed in tabular form. Start by:
- Download and review the Judging Instructions (link in table header). These instructions explain how to download and install city files to open in SimCity4. They also contain a brief explanation of how to manipulate SimCity4 and the city file to locate data asked for in the scoring criteria.
- Download and save the Rubric (link in table header). The rubric contains detailed information on scoring criteria and point values to help standardize judges' scoring. You should refer to the rubric as you complete the score sheet.
- Download and store the default region (available through links in both the "Judges Instructions" and "Resources") according to the Judge's Instructions. The student teams were instructed to create their cities in a starter region: medium-city. All submitted cities will be imported into this region.
Each record in the table relates to one entry (or task) to be scored. Start by:
- Download the Map Inventory sheet, if one was submitted (this is optional and up to the team whether they want to complete
and submit this information). This form contains information on whether specific city features exist (such as high-tech industry,
reward buildings, etc.) and in what quadrant of the city they can be found.
Note: this information is completed by the student teams and should be used for reference only to help you locate features. It has not been verified.
- Download the city and store it in your SimCity4 folder according to the judge's instructions.
- The score sheet - the city name is a link to the score sheet that the judge is to complete for this entry. Suggestion: you
might want to print off a copy of the score sheet to use while you are judging an entry. SimCity operates in full-screen mode which makes
it a little more difficult to switch between windows to enter scores into the online form. Use the paper form and then transfer numbers
to the online form after you have scored the entire entry.
Note: based on the rubrics, only certain values are allowed as scores of specific criteria. And, only whole numbers are allowed - no fractions. The website will not accept out-of-range values. It will flag each out of range value with a red symbol (circle with slash through it) and will not allow you to submit the scores until they are corrected. The system will also not accept the score sheet if there are any questions unscored.
- Start SimCity4, load the appropriate default region and import the city to the blank square in the center of the region (surrounded by default neighboring cities). Make sure the simulation is paused before you begin judging.
If you want to change a score after it has been submitted, simply click on the city name link to retrieve the score sheet. You may then alter it as necessary and resubmit.
If you would like to continue judging after all assigned files are completed, you can click the "give me a city to judge" button to have another entry assigned.
Getting Started with SimCity
- Install the SimCity 4 program according to the instructions in the Install Guide. NOTE: the install code for the program is located on the top of the back page of the SimCity manual that accompanied the disks (20 character code).
- Download the Future City starter region. Unzip (or extract all) the files and store in Documents\SimCity 4\Regions.
- Download the team's entry city. Unzip if necessary and store in the Documents\SimCity 4\Downloads folder.
- Start the SimCity 4 game. Load the starter region. Click on the city-square in the center of the region and when the dialog box for "Start a New City" appears, click on the "Import City" icon (lower left corner of the box). Import the team's entry city file into the region. Note: the imported city will overwrite/delete any prior city in that location.
Judging Essays and Narratives
Start with the Judges Home Page. There is a section on the page for Essay and City Narrative assignments listed in tabular form. Start by:
- Download and save the Rubrics (link in table header) for the Essay and City Narrative. The rubrics contain detailed information on scoring criteria and point values to help standardize judges' scoring. You should refer to the rubrics as you complete the score sheet.
- Consult the Judge's Manual, available through a link on the resources page, for background information on the essay topic and a copy of detailed assignment given to the student teams.
Each record in the table relates to one entry (or task) to be scored. Start by:
- Download the Essay and City Narrative files.
- The score sheet - the city name is a link to the score sheet that the judge is to complete for this entry.
Note: based on the rubrics, only certain values are allowed as scores of specific criteria. And, only whole numbers are allowed - no fractions. The website will not accept out-of-range values. It will flag each out of range value with a red symbol (circle with slash through it) and will not allow you to submit the scores until they are corrected. The system will also not accept the score sheet if there are any questions unscored.
If you want to change a score after it has been submitted, simply click on the city name link to retrieve the score sheet. You may then alter it as necessary and resubmit.
If you would like to continue judging after all assigned files are completed, you can click the "give me a city to judge" button to have another entry assigned.
Model and Presentation Judging
Understanding what came before: The final deliverables in the Future City Competition are the physical model and oral presentation and account for 52.5% of the team's total score. The other 47.5% of the score goes to the simulation and research essay that earlier in the program.
- Rubrics (link in table header) for the Model and Presentation. The rubrics contain detailed information on scoring criteria and point values to help standardize judges' scoring. You should familiarize yourself with the criteria - copies of the rubrics will be available on the day of the presentations. Please refer to the rubrics as you complete the score sheet.
- Judge's Manual is available as a .pdf file from a link on the Resources page. The manual contains background information on the Future City Competition and samples of the rubrics and score sheets.
- Sample Questions - the Judge's Manual also contains sample questions you may draw from for the Q&A portion of the presentation. Additionally, judges will be given two mandatory questions that they must ask all teams. These mandatory questions are sequestered until the day of the competition.
- Access to Essays and City Narratives for each team. Judges are welcome to use these as background information about the entries. Download each entry by clicking on the team name. Files should be a commonly used format like .doc (Word document) or .pdf.
- Location and time for the presentations and judging are listed, along with a map and directions to the facility.
Special Awards Judging
Special Awards are those category awards sponsored by engineering organizations and associations. They might include awards like Greenest City, Excellence in Transportation System Design, or Best Essay. Judging procedures are specific to regions - contact the judging coordinator or regional coordinator of your region for details.
All enrolled special awards judges have access to each team's essay and city narratives to use in developing their scores or as background information. Links to each entry are listed on the Judges Home Page. Clicking on each will download the file. Files should be a commonly used format like .doc (Word document) or .pdf.
Finals Judging
Not all regions run a final round of presentations and judging. However, for those regions that allow multiple teams from one school to compete, the final round of judging is mandatory. For the final round of judging, the top scoring teams from the preliminary round will advance and be re-scored on models and presentations (scores on simulation and essay carry over). By the rules, only one team per school is allowed to advance. The new final composite score will determine the winner.
Changing a Score
Judges may change a score submitted for the essay or simulation as long as it is not past the Judging Due date. Simply retrieve the score sheet (click on the entry/city name), alter as necessary and resubmit.
Give Me More to Judge
Judges may continue to judge after they have completed their initial assignments by clicking the "give me a city to judge" button to have another entry assigned.
Scores and Results
Note: results information available only after the competition.
- Preliminary: These pages list the teams in rank order with their scores (average of all judges reporting) on the various deliverables. The table also shows how many judges have been assigned to score each entry and how many have completed/reported their scores. One page for each: Simulation, Essay, Model and Presentation.
- Finals: the information for the Finals is the same as the Preliminaries except that only the teams in the finals have relevant information. The Simulation and Essay scores carry forward. The Model and Presentation scores are re-entered.
- Overall Standings - Preliminary or Final: is a tabular view of all the teams in rank order and their scores on all deliverables including the self-evaluation sheet and the penalties.