Research aims are to explore a) the diversity of science activities performed in Swedish preschool and b) how cultural factorsaffect the shaping of these. Previous research has reported on problems connected to science teaching in preschools(Garbett 2003). A discussion of the need for new epistemological views has thus been initiated (Siraj-Blatchford 2001). Still,there is a lack of studies describing the. Activity Theory (AT) is used (Engeström 1987). AT is based on a socioculturalperspective where practices are viewed as situated within historical and cultural contexts. Observation data from 10different preschool groups provided cases where tools, subjects, objects and outcomes of a particular activity could bedescribed. Answers of 757 questionnaires, distributed to preschool teachers, informed on the diversity of science activities at Swedish preschools. Ethical principles relating to basic individual protection requirements were met with regard toinformation, informed consent, confidentiality and use of data. A great creativity of preschools’ science activity themes wasdisplayed. Observations however showed that the striving to merge science activities with social learning and the child’sperspective causes the science learning object to become fragmented and elusive. In the light of our results, we argue for acontinued debate about how science activities can be created in order to both address an educare preschool culture andmeet quality science teaching goals. The results also show the benefits of combining quantitative and qualitative methodswhen describing practices.