The North Carolina International Science Challenge (NCISC) is a yearly North Carolina STEM competition for high school students. The selected students travel to Beijing, China to present their STEM research projects at the Beijing Youth Science Creation Competition the third week of March. The competition requires students to undertake a STEM research or Maker project, write an abstract explaining their research problem and present their research to a panel of scientists and engineers. The students selected spend a week in Beijing presenting their research, meeting students from other countries, and experiencing various cultural and scientific events. The NCISC is offered jointly by the North Carolina Science, Mathematics and Technology Education Center (SMT Center) and the Morehead Planetarium and Science Center.