Full STEAM ahead! New teacher brings science and art together in Southold

Amanda Fina discovered STEM — science, technology, engineering and mathematics — while working as a substitute teacher in Deer Park. Now she’s bringing STEAM, with the “A” standing for arts, to Southold Elementary School, where she’ll teach all the letters to the district’s young learners.

“Right now in the elementary school, it’s science/STEAM. But really, with me being there, it’s STEAM,” Ms. Fina said. “I’m really excited to bring that new word to these kids who don’t know about it.”

Ms. Fina, 28, will be working with all students in kindergarten through sixth grade. 

She said Southold has always had a designated sixth-grade science teacher, but new for this year will be co-teaching in her classroom. The approach, she feels, offers more hands to help the students, while also showing them the importance of collaboration.

“They get to see teachers collaborating, and see how that’s such an important side of the way the world works,” she said. “In that classroom, they’re going to be collaborating with friends, or sometimes they’re not friends. It’s really important to learn how to work together.”

Superintendent Anthony Mauro welcomed the addition.

“We are super excited to have Amanda in our newly organized STEAM room. We believe she, along with our classroom teachers, will be able to provide our students with an experience that is not only educational, but inspiring,” he said. “Providing our students with the opportunity to tap into their creative side is important to all of us in Southold, and this is another opportunity to do that.”

Ms. Fina said students have been learning all the aspects of STEAM all along; it was just always labeled science. Kids may not realize they’re learning it if they’re in a science class and need to use math for a project, for example, she said.

Every theme and topic taught to students — science, math, engineering design, computer science — is dictated by state standards. Each project is aligned to grade level.

“Kindergarten’s learning about, let’s say, life cycles. They’ll learn the content, do a hands-on project with it, and then when they get to first grade, if they’re doing life cycles again, it’s a little more in depth,” she said. 

Ms. Fina grew up in East Islip and attended Suffolk Community College, where she first earned an associate degree in early childhood education in 2019. She then attended St. Joseph’s University in Patchogue, where she earned a bachelor’s in child study in 2022.

While at St. Joseph’s, Ms. Fina got her first school job as a permanent substitute in the Deer Park School District. That’s where she found out what she wanted her future to be.

“We didn’t have STEM the way these kids have it nowadays when I was growing up. It was one of those new terms,” she said.

She saw students completing not-so-typical projects, with little buildings falling on desks. It was very different from what she was used to in school, with its worksheets and note-taking. 

She also saw students who weren’t discouraged by failure and were excited to try again.

“This classroom was really inspiring for me as an educator because it was the way that I wish I had growing up,” Ms. Fina said. “I wish I had the hands-on learning, the ability to think outside the box, and share my ideas.”

Then she switched gears and began looking into master’s programs to help her teach that way. She stumbled upon and enrolled in SUNY Empire University’s online program, through which she earned a master’s in educational technologies and learning design.

She was subbing in the Islip Union Free School District for a short time when a STEM teacher position popped up at St. Agnes Cathedral School in Rockville Centre in 2023. She decided to make that leap out of public schools.

“It was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made as an educator because, when I got there, it was a blank slate classroom,” she said.

The walls were freshly painted, and she had the freedom to build her own curriculum from scratch. She collaborated a lot with the school’s art teacher, Sandra Collins, whose room was right across the hall. 

Ms. Fina and Ms. Collins had students complete numerous hands-on projects, including bridges made of spaghetti and a miniature city, with different grades building different parts.

The city had everything from skyscrapers to a zoo.

“It wasn’t just a display piece. It was little learning pieces along the way,” she said with a laugh.

Her time at St. Agnes prepared her for Southold due to the lessons she learned teaching and building a classroom.

“It was really a great experience for me there because I really learned a lot from the kids,” she said. “I really appreciated my time there. I got to try out things that I’ll use in the future.”