Experience from interactions with school faculty during my student teaching periods is that many teachers complain about the quality and availability of materials for teaching hands-on, inquiry-based lessons. To get an indication of how widespread these practices are, a survey was sent to 30 professionals in the Södertälje area who teach physics in the grade 6 curriculum of the Swedish compulsory school system. A follow-up interview was given to 4 of these teachers, each from a different school. It was found that teachers with more experience, know how to improvise and include everyday items into their lessons, in addition to traditional teaching materials. For these teachers, materials do not limit their ability to teach the subject and meet the educational goals. Time is a valuable resource in modern schools and often teachers have little planning time available to them. Research has shown that textbooks are a heavily relied-upon resource in science teaching. Often teachers follow these resources too closely in an effort to save time. This too often results in lessons and investigations where the tendency is for students follow recipes (structured inquiry). Experienced teachers are flexible and can adapt inquiry-based activities to the needs of the students, creating more possibilities for student input and creativity using guided and open inquiry in the classroom.