BOISE — Fifteen homeschoolers are heading to the big apple to put their stem skills to the test.
"We're heading off to Cornell University in New York to compete at the National Science Olympiad Tournament representing Idaho and home-schoolers," said homeschooler Ashton Daum.
It's no easy feat making it to the national competition.
Nine months working on 23 different events that cover various aspects of the STEM field," said Daum.
Every state is represented at the National Science Olympiad, and each student participates in 3 or 4 different events like chem lab or disease detectives.
"These students they gather, a lot of times because it's a homeschool team they gather in my kitchen, and they're working on crime scenes, working on labs, and it's just been an exciting year," said head coach April Daum.
As excited as they are to compete against other students in New York and possibly win thousands in scholarship money, they're also excited to represent homeschoolers across the nation.
"We do work hard for our curriculum, and we do work hard for our grades, so going to nationals, that's a big deal to us, so we can show other people," said Daum.
It's their third year tackling the competition, and they're ready to get to work.
"Regardless of how they do, nobody can take the knowledge they've gained," said April.
