The aim of this paper is to describe and scrutinize teaching activities in a selection of Norwegian science classrooms, with a special emphasis on conceptual framing and language use. This is done in order to shed light on and discuss the meaning-making activities students are offered in order to learn science. The research design is a classroom video-study supported with ethnographic observations and interviews of students and teachers. The study is done in ninth grade (students are 14-15 years old), in six schools differing in demography and organization. In our analysis we shed light on how conceptual language, coding categories and timescales are significant in analyzing meaning-making in science classrooms. Our multilayered analyses of science classrooms reveal at the first level (meso-level) of general analysis less group work and individual work than expected in science. Our analyses also disclose, at a micro-level, that there is not much emphasis on scientific language and scientific modes of speaking; like seeking explanations with the help of models and theory.