Designing Your CAS: The Basic Pathway
Summary:
The 'basic pathway' model suggests the way for you to meet the CAS requirements at the minimum level in 18 months.
For planning, be sure to choose your CAS experiences to encompass all three strands of CAS.
Experiences in the Activity strand should be done in both Year 1 and Year 2 for you to lead a healthy lifestyle.
It is vital for you to communicate with your CAS project stakeholders to get 'the big picture' ahead of time when investigating and preparing your CAS project because some steps and goals may be beyond your control, such as the availability of school calendar dates, the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions, etc.
What Will You Try and Pursue in CAS?
Creativity: Try at least one CAS experience.
This can be any of the clubs, non-IB elective courses, lessons, etc. that offer activities that resonate with the definition of this strand.
Consult the appropriate commitment period for your skill development, goal achievement, and growth with your club advisors/ coaches/ teachers/ instructors.
Activity: Try at least one CAS experience, both in your Junior and Senior Year for a healthy lifestyle.
This can be undertaken as personal fitness or competitive athletics at school or off-campus.
For busy Diploma students, investing in health and wellness to lead a balanced lifestyle is highly beneficial in the long run.
Service: Try at least one CAS experience.
This can be in any of the four actions of Service: direct, indirect, advocacy, or research.
For Service experiences to be meaningful, it is recommended that you get to know your community partners over or engage with environmentally sustainable practices over a period of time to learn by doing.
*2020 - 21: Adjustment to the Direct Service requirement due to the COVID-19 pandemic: No interactions are allowed with external guests on campus or taking a field trip, as per the Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) of the pandemic restrictions. So, 'Direct Service' can only be done at home during the lockdown (e.g. starting a kitchen garden, leading a zero-waste lifestyle at home, etc.) or in limited ways on campus if students are authorised to return to campus (e.g. peer/ cross-age tutoring/ coaching, sustainability and community/ environment enhancement work, etc.).
CAS Planning: The Basic Pathway
Your plans and ideas for your CAS experiences and project will be discussed during the individual CAS First Year (August - September of your Junior Year) and Second Year (August of your Senior Year) Planning Interviews with the CAS Team.
Study the Basic Pathway document and the planning interview documents below to learn how to plan your two years in CAS.
Junior Year (Year 1 of the Diploma Programme)
Semester 1
As this is the very first semester of your CAS journey, please begin your CAS experiences with a CAS supervisor as much as possible. 'CAS supervisors' are your club advisors and athletic coaches in your ISKL co-curricular activities. They can also be qualified instructors in your chosen CAS experiences outside of the ISKL community.
Click on the CAS First Year Planning Document below to determine how you can design your own CAS programme this year that is manageable, taking into consideration your CAS requirement needs.
Do one or more of the following depending on your preference, comfort level, or time-management issues:
Creativity:
Take a non-IB elective course (August - December) if you are not taking one in the Activity strand.
Join a school-based club
Commit to lessons/ classes/ special interest group off-campus for most of the semester, e.g. September - November.
Activity:
Take a non-IB elective course (August - December) if you are not taking one in the Creativity strand.
Personal fitness with your choice of workout with an ISKL Faculty/ staff member or a qualified instructor off-campus
ISKL Junior/ Varsity Athletics
Join a community/ recreational sports/ dance/ exercise group off-campus for most of the semester, e.g. September - November.
Service:
Join a school-based club in advocacy, community partnership, or environmental sustainability
Commit to peer or cross-age tutoring for most of the semester based on requests by ISKL counsellors or teachers
Join campaigns, contribute to fundraising/ goods drive, or other kinds of volunteering opportunities with a local NGO for most of the semester, e.g. September - early December.
CAS Project:
Learn about what you can do and the guidelines here and attend the October CAS group meeting.
Begin doing your investigation through your personal inventory, the MISO method, etc.
Begin preparing and implementing your project, if you have a concrete and feasible proposal.
Semester 2
Your life as a Diploma student will become increasingly busy this semester. Most students will be unable to take a non-IB elective course in Semester 2* because two other Diploma Core components will be introduced this semester: Theory of Knowledge (TOK) and Extended Essay (EE), and the amount of the IB Internal Assessments (IAs) and other coursework will increase.
Therefore, you these can be your basic CAS engagement in Semester 2:
Continue with the ISKL clubs that you joined in Semester 1 until early May or whenever the clubs conclude their activities for the school year. Prioritise one or two club(s) that you are really passionate about and feel good about participating in.
For ISKL Junior and Varsity Athletics, Season 2 usually continues until the end of January. Consult your coach(es). Joining Season 3 is dependent upon your interest in the sports offered and your IB workload.
Continue to investigate your CAS project possibilities and if you can, plan and implement your project this semester.
*Taking another non-IB semester elective course is not possible for most students' schedules in Semester 2 due to the requirement of taking a TOK course for all Diploma students. However, if it fits your schedule or is an integral part of your future plans (e.g. music, creative technology courses, etc.), then you are welcome to do so. It is recommended that you consult your counsellor about your future plans, time management under pressure, etc.
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Do one or more of the following depending on your preference, comfort level, or time-management issues:
Creativity:
Take a non-IB elective course (August - December) if you are not taking one in the Activity strand.
Join a school-based club
Commit to lessons/ classes/ special interest group off-campus for most of the semester, e.g. September - November.
Activity:
Take a non-IB elective course (August - December) if you are not taking one in the Creativity strand.
Personal fitness with your choice of workout with an ISKL Faculty/ staff member or a qualified instructor off-campus
ISKL Junior/ Varsity Athletics
Join a community/ recreational sports/ dance/ exercise group off-campus for most of the semester, e.g. September - November.
Service:
Join a school-based club in advocacy, community partnership, or environmental sustainability
Commit to peer or cross-age tutoring for most of the semester based on requests by ISKL counsellors or teachers
Join campaigns, contribute to fundraising/ goods drive, or other kinds of volunteering opportunities with a local NGO for most of the semester, e.g. September - early December.
CAS Project:
Learn about what you can do and the guidelines here and attend the October CAS group meeting.
Begin doing your investigation through your personal inventory, the MISO method, etc.
Begin preparing and implementing your project, if you have a concrete and feasible proposal.
Senior Year (Year 2 of the Diploma Programme)
Semester 1
Your life as a Diploma student will continue to be busy this semester. In addition to working towards meeting all of the IB Diploma requirements, you will also need to actively research and pursue your post-secondary education options and plans.
If you completed one supervised CAS experience in all three CAS strands in your Junior Year, then you can engage with unsupervised CAS experiences this semester. Please check with the CAS Team about this during your Second Year Planning Interview.
Click on the CAS Second Year Planning Document below to identify your CAS requirement needs and make a feasible but worthwhile plan for your Senior Year.
The items below should be the starting point of your basic CAS engagement in Semester 1:
If you could not explore a particular strand of CAS in Junior Year, prioritise a CAS experience in this strand.
Engage with some kind of moderate exercising this semester for the Activity strand.
Continue with the ISKL clubs that you joined in your Junior Year. Prioritise one or two club(s) that you are really passionate about and feel good about participating in.
If you could not come up with a CAS project proposal in your Junior Year, prioritise your CAS project investigation with the aim to start implementing your project this semester.
Continue to implement your CAS project and complete it this semester.
Semester 2
Your life as a Diploma student will see its conclusion this semester. You will be wrapping up all your work towards meeting all of the IB Diploma requirements. You will or have already identified your post-secondary education option. You are getting ready to lead your own life, most likely away from your immediate family members for the first time in your life.
The focus of this semester is for you to put a closure to your CAS experiences and project. By March, you will have completed all of most of your commitment to the CAS experiences that you began engaging with in Semester 1. You will also need to implement and complete your CAS project before the mid-semester break in March.