What is a cloud? Why do boats float? How does a car work? If you have a preschooler or kindergartener in your life, you could hear 100 questions like this every day. Little learners have such a wide-open curiosity about the world, you may have caught yourself wishing you understood more about the science of clouds or bridge engineering or botany yourself—just to explain things.

Despite the ravenous interest, so many little ones have in STEM topics (science, technology, engineering, and math), that enthusiasm tends to fade as they get older. But with STEM careers making up a huge part of today’s (and likely the future’s) economy, it’s not a bad idea to keep feeding that fire. STEM activities need to be introduced early on because, in today’s age of information, the ability to innovate, be technologically fluent, and understand how and why things work together is incredibly important.

But finding STEM projects for kids that the average parent or teacher can facilitate is not always easy. Fortunately for you, we’ve taken care of the guesswork and compiled a list of 11 simple STEM activities for kids you can employ as early as preschool.