This pamphlet is the ninth in a series of ten stemming from the view that language is central to learning, that teachers can gain insights into their work and into learning by examining the language of the classroom, and that current language theory can be the means to such insights. The pamphlet describes a project that was undertaken to discover if exploratory talk played a significant role in mediating between science experiences and the solutions to problems in the secondary school. Excerpts from transcripts of student interactions are used to illustrate what the students were able to do with the relevant propositional knowledge at their disposal and the ways in which they explored their understanding of various problems through verbal behavior. (FL)