Thank you for pointing out the 6-8 NS Progression actually includes high school as well.
The document I am referring to is Appendix A. Whether looking at page 25, Algebra I/Unit 5 or page 63, Math II/Unit 1, the Clusters with Instructional Notes column to the of the standard states “Connect N.RN.3 to physical situations, e.g., finding the perimeter of a square of area 2.”
We have since moved beyond this standard having needed a solution a couple of weeks ago. We handled my posted question by asking students to either state that a particular property was true or if false, by offering a counter example. Our in-class conversations went much deeper than this and included some discussion of formal proofs for a few of the properties.
This was our first go at this particular standard as we are phasing in Math 1/2/3 and replacing the A1/G/A2 track we use to have. We may handle this differently next year based as we learn more about this particular standard over the next year.