Unit 2 This framework is represented with the words specialise, generalise, conjecture and verify. It involves reasoning, communicating and making connections that are important in developing mathematical thinking. The framework is described in the following table. Specialise © Manipulate specific examples Guises include: in order to gain confidence, Give me an example. Take a specific number. Show me on the apparatus. Generalise Focus on features common to Whats the same? many examples. Is it always true? What if you change this? Describe the pattern, Conjecture’ Attempt to articulate a What do you think might generalisation, be true? Have a guess. Does it fit the facts? Verify, Demonstrate why a How do you know? conjecture is valid, not just by | Why will it always work? reference to particular How would you convince examples, but in general a friend? The use of this framework is illustrated in the following task. Task 2.4 One sum Think of any two numbers whose sum is 1. “Square the larger and add the smaller. Square the smaller and add the larger. Which result do you think will be larger? After you have tried a few cases, make a conjecture. How could you verify your conjecture? Comment The first step with this task, as with many others, is to specialise, that is, to try out some numbers. Two numbers | Square the larger | Square the smaller | Result that sum to 1 | andadd the smaller | and add the larger -1 and 2 2+) (742 Same =4-1 142 =3 =3 0.3 and 0.7 0.7 +0. 0.3°+0.7 Same =0.49+03 =0.09+0.7 0.79 0.79