New private school in Reston to offer STEM classes for 4th-8th graders

STEM education center Ideaventions is ready to launch a full-blown private school program.

At the Reston-based Ideaventions Academy for Mathematics and Science each day will start with a nature walk, coding will be a requirement and classes will be taught in hour-and-a-half chunks.
“We think education should occur not just inside,” said Ideaventions founder Ryan Heitz. The idea, he added, is to “create an environment where [students] can do really hands-on work.”
Heitz initially ventured into the STEM education business for his two children.
“We had two very curious kids,” he said. “We were looking for something for them to do, we couldn’t find anything.”
So in 2010, he founded Ideaventions with his wife Juliana Heitz, a former schoolmate at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology.
The Oakton-based center offers after-school programs and science camps to help children learn STEM-related concepts more intuitively.
Learning activities include inventing apps, culturing bacteria or replicating Taylorism by recreating an assembly line.
After breaking ground May 18, the school will open for 80 students in the fall. Tuition is set at $24,500.