Skip to content

EdNC. Essential education news. Important stories. Your voice.

‘Science is the key to unlock the gates to a new era and to a brighter future’

The North Carolina International Science Challenge (NCISC) is a yearly North Carolina science competition hosted by North Carolina Science, Mathematics, and Technology Education Center (SMT Center) for high school students. The selected students travel to Beijing, China to present their science research projects at the Beijing Youth Science Creation Competition the third week of March. The competition requires students to undertake a research 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 SMT Center and the Morehead Planetarium and Science Center. This blog is from one of the adult participants on the trip. Editor’s note: The Burroughs Wellcome Fund supports EducationNC.

If you were to imagine the Olympics for Science with the brightest and the best students, aspiring scientists and creative minds from around the world along with a competition full of intriguing ideas and design discoveries, this week would without a doubt be it.

287 innovative science projects are being presented and on display with students from around the world at The 38th annual Beijing youth Science Creative Competition in China.

I had the honor of being a judge for a part of the competition and I was truly impressed by these student designed projects that aim to correct indoor air pollution, detect heart attacks or concepts that use  nanoparticles to help in fighting diseases like cancer and more , the ideas are endless.

A promising young scientist, a middle school student from Macao summed it up perfectly at the end of his presentation this afternoon about the need for importance of scientific innovation and discovery.

“Science is the key to unlock the gates to a new era and to a brighter future”

These students are without a doubt the wave of the future creating cures and devices that will help mankind and the will be the dynamic workforce of tomorrow.

Marti Skold-Jordan

Ms. Skold-Jordan is responsible for the Community Partnerships programs at GSK’s headquarters sites in the U.S : Research Triangle Park, NC, and in Philadelphia, PA. She was previously Manager of External Communications for GSK. Before joining GSK, Ms. Skold-Jordan spent 30 years covering news and weather as a journalist in television markets around the country. Ms. Skold-Jordan received her bachelor’s degree from Concordia College, Moorhead, Minnesota. Ms. Skold-Jordan is a two time Emmy Award winner with an Emmy for Best Newscast in Los Angeles and an Emmy for Science and Environmental Reporting. Marti’s Community Involvement includes Board of Directors and Executive Committee – North Carolina Business Committee for Education, Governor’s Office, Board of Directors – North Carolina Public School Forum, Board of Advisors – North Carolina New Schools. Her Professional Associations include Association of Corporate Contributions Professionals.