The start of the COVID-19 pandemic with its unique constraints led teachers of all disciplines, across all levels, to employ diverse strategies in their quick transition to online learning. Emerging literature has suggested readiness and resources for the transition to remote learning along with intrinsic and extrinsic factors such as student motivation and engagement to be frequent challenges faced by teachers. The purpose of this work is twofold: a) conduct a review of the immediate post-pandemic literature to summarize the study and challenges of teaching STEM courses during the pandemic, and b) summarize the study experiences of secondary teachers teaching a pre-college engineering course at the beginning of the pandemic. Collectively the literature review and experimental findings enable greater understanding and sense-making of adaptations made to prepare for future abrupt changes that may arise. Focus group data (n= 39) of secondary school engineering teachers were analyzed qualitatively using sensemaking theory to reveal several challenges faced and strategies adopted during this unprecedented time. Our review of immediate post-pandemic literature suggests lack of student engagement and motivation, scheduling, access to the 'right' resources, and training with technology were the most frequent challenges experienced by teachers. Our empirical findings demonstrated similar challenges faced by a sample of pre-college teachers teaching a new engineering course which were summarized into four themes: teaching logistics, time management, available support, and regulations. The themes provide the foundation for mitigation strategies during a crisis or abrupt change in the future.