Aim: The aim of this study is to investigate how context-specific and generic scaffolding affect upper secondary school students' conversations during laboratory work in chemistry and find out if meaningful exploratory conversations taking place that increase the students' understanding. Theory: Previous studies show that there are difficulties for students to both handle practical material in laboratory work and create meaningful conceptual understanding. It needs to be more minds on than hands on. This study has a socio-cultural basis where language is an important basis for thinking. Previous studies show that the exploratory conversation is important for creating understanding.