One of the eight key competencies that Basque students must acquire through Compulsory Education is the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) competency as stated by the recent Decree 77/2023.

Teachers are those who must design, implement, and evaluate the STEM projects recommended for STEM education, thus it is to be expected that, along with other issues, their perceptions about the matter have an impact on the establishment, improvement, and permanence of such projects. To gather such perceptions regarding the challenges, difficulties and strengths that emerge in the overall process of implementing this type of projects, the case of a STEM project for the first year of Compulsory Secondary Education in a high school centre in Vitoria-Gasteiz was studied. The perceptions of three teachers who participated in the design, implementation and/or evaluation of a STEM project were analysed, using two semi-structured interviews (one after the design of the project and the other one after its implementation in the 2023-2024 school year).

In the interviews, the teachers expressed that in the design phase of the STEM project, it was challenging to select and deploy the tasks so that the corresponding curricular areas of knowledge were balanced. The difficulties they expressed referred to the integration of mathematics in the STEM project and the temporariness of some of the teachers. The main strength laid on the fact that the teachers interviewed naturally took on the tasks of creating and implementing STEM projects .

Throughout the implementation, the challenges communicated were related to the coordination between teachers and students and the accomplishment of the timetable. The main difficulties expressed were the lack of coordination and consensus in the monitoring of the tasks carried out by the students, the temporariness of some of the teachers and the irregular knowledge of the vehicular language (Basque) by the students. As for strengths, the enthusiasm of the students in general stood out; particularly, the participation and willingness of those who usually did not join in other activities.

In the evaluation phase of the project, strengths, difficulties and challenges were observed. Among the strengths, the active involvement of temporary teachers stood out. As for difficulties, the training needs of the teachers in more balanced designs emerged, particularly with respect to the teaching-learning of mathematics. As for challenges, the need was to improve the design of the STEM project, both regarding the coordination among teachers, and student training in cooperative groups before they initiated the STEM project.

These results allow us to conclude that STEM projects should be approached considering that the challenges, difficulties, and strengths encountered during the process evolve throughout it. Therefore, evaluation cycles should be planned taking into account the analysis of such challenges, difficulties, and strengths and that of their implementation.

Keywords: STEM projects, Compulsory Secondary Education, teacher's perception, challenges, difficulties and strengths.