The Aim of Creativity, Activity, and Service (CAS)

CAS is intended to move you out of the academic arena and help you learn through life experiences. The emphasis of CAS is on experiential learning. At the same time, it provides an important counterbalance to the academic pressures of the rest of the Diploma Program. Students should be challenged by CAS, but enjoy it as well. Consider how CAS activities can help you to become a better person, by:

• understanding your own strengths and limitations, identifying goals, and devising strategies for personal growth.

• having an awareness of yourself as a member of communities with responsibilities towards each other and the environment.

• being an active participant in sustained, collaborative projects.

• finding significance in a range of activities involving intellectual, physical, creative, and emotional experiences.

CAS should involve:

• real, purposeful activities, with significant outcomes.

• personal challenge.

• thoughtful consideration, such as planning, reviewing progress, and reporting.

• reflection on outcomes and personal learning.

CAS activities should continue on a regular basis, when possible. Generally, CAS is not taking place when the student is in a passive rather than an active role. It is the experience and reflection upon the experience that counts; this is not merely a logging of hours exercise.

CAS Requirements:

1. Engage meaningfully through participation in each strand (creativity, activity, and service).

   • Service hours can count for WPS graduation requirement and CAS.

   • Cannot count CAS hours for anything that takes place in an IB course.

   • Can count CAS hours for activities in a non-IB course, even if the student receives credit for the course (band, choir, art, yearbook, team sports, weightlifting, etc.).

2. Complete a CAS Project.

   • 1. 1. 1. • Project must be at least one month’s duration.

              • Project may address one or more strands (creativity, activity, service).

              • Ideally, the CAS Project should be collaborative.

The Five Stages of CAS

1. Investigation -

Students identify their interests, skills, and talents to be used in considering opportunities for CAS experiences, as well as areas for personal growth and development. Students investigate what they want to do and determine the purpose for their CAS experience. In the case of service, students identify a need they want to address.

2. Preparation -

Students clarify roles and responsibilities, develop a plan of actions to be taken, identify specific resources and timelines, and acquire any skills as needed to engage in the CAS experience.

3. Action -

Students implement their idea or plan. This often requires decision making and problem solving. Students may work individually, with partners, or in groups.

4. Reflection -

Students describe what happened, express feelings, generate ideas, and raise questions. Reflection can occur at any time during CAS to further understanding, to assist with revising plans, to learn from the experience, and to make explicit connections between their growth, accomplishments, and the learning outcomes for personal awareness. Reflection may lead to new action.

5. Demonstration -

Students make explicit what and how they learned and what they have accomplished, for example, by sharing their CAS experience through their CAS portfolio or with others in an informal or formal manner. Through demonstration and communication, students solidify their understanding and evoke response from others.

Steps for Success in CAS

1. Creating your CAS Plan

• CAS activities cannot begin before your first day of junior year. It is important that you check in with the CAS Coordinator to verify that the activities you are planning will count toward CAS.

• You must take part in a range of activities, including at least one significant, enduring project (CAS Project). Activities can be on or off campus.

• Your plan should include specific ideas as to how you will reflect on your activities and how you will demonstrate reflection.

• Please note that this plan is fluid and will change as you begin to carry out your activities and reflect.

2. Recording and Reflecting in ManageBac

• You must keep records of your activities and achievements via ManageBac, with evidence, as your CAS portfolio.

• Experiential learning is at the heart of CAS, and it involves much more than just planning and carrying out the activity itself. It also involves personal observation and reflection of your feelings and interactions. Reflect at the end of each activity or after every 10-15 hours for longer-running activities.

• Student reflection may be expressed through a paragraph, a dialogue, a poem, a comic strip, a dramatic performance, a letter, a photograph, a dance, or other forms of expression, but should always contain a written element. Please remember that purposeful reflection is about quality rather than quantity.

• Elements to guide reflection:

  • Describing what happened - Students retell their memorable moments, identifying what was important or influential, what went well or was difficult, obstacles and successes.

  • Expressing feelings - Students articulate emotional responses to their experiences.

  • Generating ideas - Rethinking or re-examining choices and actions increases awareness about self and situations.

  • Asking questions - Questions about people, processes, or issues prompt further thinking and ongoing inquiry.

• To complete the CAS requirement, you must provide evidence that all seven learning outcomes have been met. Some may be demonstrated many times, in a variety of activities, but completion requires only that there is evidence for every outcome.

3. Meeting with your CAS Coordinator

• You will be meeting with your CAS Coordinator for at least two interim reviews of your progress - beginning of junior year and end of junior year. Your final review will take place at the midpoint of your senior year. These meetings will include a review of your plan and your documentation. The CAS Coordinator will also review your reflections periodically during the process via ManageBac.

Examples of CAS Activities

ManageBac

Students will use the ManageBac reporting system for work on their extended essay and CAS (as well as community service hours). Throughout the year, students will receive instructions and reminders regarding their need to enter pertinent information in the system so that the IB Coordinator as well as their teachers can keep abreast of the students' progress. https://wps.managebac.com/login