CAS
What is CAS?
CAS stands for Creativity, Activity, Service. Essentially, you are required to engage in many different extracurriculars throughout the two years.
It is recommended that you complete approximately 150 CAS hours, although this is no longer required. You must make sure that you have completed enough experiences to meet the CAS outcomes.
What is the IB Learner Profile?
There are 10 attributes that the IB is meant to help you develop:
Inquirers
Knowledgeable
Thinkers
Communicators
Principled
Open-minded
Caring
Risk-takers
Balanced
Reflective
What are the 7 CAS outcomes?
Learning outcome 1: Identify own strengths and develop areas for growth
Learning outcome 2: Demonstrate that challenges have been undertaken, developing new skills in the process
Learning outcome 3: Demonstrate how to initiate and plan a CAS experience
Learning outcome 4: Show commitment to and perseverance in CAS experiences
Learning outcome 5: Demonstrate the skills and recognize the benefits of working collaboratively
Learning outcome 6: Demonstrate engagement with issues of global significance
Learning outcome 7: Recognize and consider the ethics of choices and actions
The importance of CAS reflections
Possibly the most important aspect of CAS is the process of reflection. You must write reflections on every different experience you complete! If it is a long term or repetitive experience, you do not need to reflect after every session, but you need to keep track of your hours and any difficulties you encounter, any solutions you come up with, and any "Ah-ha!" moments. The main goal of your reflections is to demonstrate that you meet the learning outcomes.
Most people will write their reflections in regular paragraph form, but you aren't restricted to doing it this way! You can use creative methods of reflection, such as writing poetry, painting, performing dance or theatre, drawing, etc.
Picture evidence
You will need evidence of completing CAS experiences. The easiest way is to take pictures! However, sometimes it is not possible, so you can instead use a CAS form to get a supervisor to confirm that you did do what you said you did. Mrs. MacCorquodale will provide you with this form in grade 11.
Examples of Creativity
School clubs:
Film club
Debate club
Bullet journaling
Writing
Sewing
Cooking and baking
Tie dye crafts
Planning and organizing events
Sculpting
Gardening
Graphic design
Nail art
Knitting or crocheting
Felting
Painting
Collage work
Beadwork
Learning a new language
Music: singing or playing an instrument
Drawing
Dancing
Composing
Choreographing
Cross stitch
Examples of Activity
Grayfit or any other crossfit class
Karate
Kickboxing
Hockey
Hiking
Running
Dance
Volleyball
Swimming
Skating
Baseball
Yoga
Online workout challenges
Service
Many people will immediately picture the type of volunteering where you physically go and help a certain organization or cause, but this is not the only form of service!
The 4 types of service:
Direct service
You directly help people, like playing music at a senior's home
Indirect service
You cannot directly see the people you are helping, such as helping with a fundraiser
Advocacy
You advocate for a cause, such as through creating and spreading posters, videos, or even social media posts.
Research
You perform research and compile it to help with a certain cause or goal. For example, creating this website's page on studying advice required research of different possible methods, and then they were presented to share with IB students. Research could also include collecting your own data, such as doing polls, surveys, or petitions about a certain issue, perhaps to be used to help create a change in the community.
Examples of Service
Clubs:
Key Club
Environment club
Tutoring
You will get the opportunity to tutor in the math and science center during lunches
As a grade 11 IB, you can tutor students in pre-IB courses
As a grade 12 IB, you can tutor students in Grade 11 IB
You can also find opportunities to tutor younger kids. In Key Club, you can volunteer to run the homework club at Queen Charlottetown. You can also tutor elementary school kids, but you will need to find a way to get in contact with someone at an elementary school. You could try to find the email address of a vice-principal or other administrator at the school.
Volunteering at the soup kitchen
Volunteering at local churches and shelters
Planning local events for small organisations
Volunteering for non profit organisations
Volunteering your time to your neighbours and community events
This could be as simple as asking your elderly neighbour if they need help mowing their lawn!
Volunteering in the Colonel Gray Library
CAS Project Ideas
The things you could do for CAS project are truly endless! (as long as it takes at least 1 month)
You can choose to focus on any the three strands, and most likely, you will use two or more of the strands in your project. For example, the creation of this website used both creativity and service. Another example is creating a youth running group, which would use all three strands!
Most people tend to choose a project that focuses mainly on service
If you want to do a project that needs funding, there are plenty of community grants that you can apply for. Many IB students in the past have received grants to carry out their projects, such as the flag project in the cafeteria.
https://www.lanternaeducation.com/ib-blog/50-cas-project-ideas/
Overall, don't forget to have fun! You should choose to engage in experiences that you think you will enjoy or want to learn more about.