These students' explanations are tied to the specific example, but there is evidence that some students are constructing arguments that may lead to more-general conclusions. Carol is satisfied that "it works every time" but does not have an argument that is based on the structure of multiplication. Malia refers to breaking up one of the factors in the problem into two parts, multiplying the other number by both parts, and then adding the results—the distributive property of multiplication over addition. Steven's explanation is based on modeling multiplication as skip-counting, and Matt takes his original idea further by testing whether multiplying by 6 is the same as multiplying by 2 then by 3. Although none of these third graders' arguments is stated in a way that is complete or general, they are beginning to see what it means to develop and test conjectures about mathematical relationships.