CAS handbook
The nature of creativity, action, service
- Creativity: arts, and other experiences that involve creative thinking.
- Action: physical exertion contributing to a healthy lifestyle, complementing academic work elsewhere in the Diploma Program.
- Service: an unpaid and voluntary exchange that has a learning benefit for the student. The rights, dignity and autonomy of all those involved are respected.
Learning outcomes
As a result of their CAS experience as a whole, including their reflections, there should be evidence that students have:
- increased their awareness of their own strengths and areas for growth
- undertaken new challenges
- planned and initiated activities
- worked collaboratively with others
- shown perseverance and commitment in their activities
- engaged with issues of global importance
- considered the ethical implications of their actions
- developed new skills
Students are required to:
● Self-review at the beginning of their entire CAS experience and set personal goals
for what they hope to achieve through their CAS program
● Plan, do and reflect (plan activities, carry them out and reflect on lessons learned)
● Write a final review of all activities and the overall experience of CAS
● Take part in a range of activities, with an adult activity supervisor
● Keep records of their activities and achievements
● Meet with the IB coordinator to discuss progress towards CAS goals
● Show evidence of achievement of the eight CAS learning outcomes
- evidence can be show through a journal, blog, photos, website, or files
For Student Development to Occur, CAS should involve:
● Real, purposeful activities, with significant outcomes
● Personal Challenge – tasks must extend the student and be achievable in scope
● Thoughtful consideration, such as planning, reviewing progress, reporting
● Reflection on outcomes and personal learning
All proposed CAS activities need to meet these four criteria above. Concurrency of learning is important in the CAS program, and therefore, CAS activities should continue on a regular basis for as long as possible throughout the program, and certainly for at least 18 months.
Examples of what students could do:
- Teach a kid to swim, play soccer, draw, read
- Coach a team of younger students
- Organize an activity in your community
- Create a local community garden
- Teach English to recently arrived immigrants
- Fundraise for an event with a specific cause
- Join Best-Buddies
- Participate in Youth Action Groups
- Join a literacy project
- Volunteer at the Farmer’s Market
- Car Wash
- Create pamphlets to provide information to a population of people who need a service
- Join a new sports team
- Karate, boxing, Tai-chi, Yoga, dance,
- Learn to scuba dive
- Join a running club / biking team / cheerleading team
- Try Snowboarding/Skiing
- Take a backpacking trip
- Build a house
- Join an emergency response team
- Cooking, Jewelry, photography, or art class
- Writing a play, novel, children’s book or Make a film/movie
- Join a school club debate club, science club
- Learning an instrument / language
- Writing for a newspaper
- Teaching/coaching someone
- Creating a mural
- Organize a fundraiser/ benefit
- Designing and creating a website
More specific suggestions for ways to fulfill the CAS requirement are in the online IBCAS resource guide.
What CAS is not:
- CAS is not just an hour-counting activity.
- Any class, activity or project which is already part of the BIHS Program
- An activity where the student is financially rewarded
- Simple, tedious, repetitive work, photocopying etc
- Religious devotion toward converting others
- Any activity which is divisive, this could be political or religious
- A passive pursuit (eg. museum, theatre, concert visits or watching sports)
- Fund-raising with no clearly defined end in sight
The CAS Process
THINK about what you want to do and how you want to spend your time completing your CAS hours. Make sure it's meaningful, you can meet the learning objectives, and that you have a supervisor at that activity.
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Fill out the CAS planning forms (pages 12 & 13 of the printable CAS Handbook) and give it back to Ms. Milton
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Enter your activities online with a description and supervisor information to get pre-approval
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Attend the event or activity and track your own hours regularly (page 9 & 10)
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Enjoy and challenge yourself
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Enter your hours online on the Berkeley ManageCAS website after you have completed the activity
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Complete the evidence (journal, photos, youtube, blog, files) of your activity online after the activity is over. Make sure you check off the learning objectives.
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Request supervisor evaluation through the website after your details are completed, you've entered your hours.
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Make sure that you are meeting the learning objectives (pages 6)
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Check the website to make sure you have received credit for your activities
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Contact Mr. Parker (D140 or rossparker@berkeley.net) if you have questions or you need help.
Reflection, Recording and Reporting
Reflection needs to be developed. It should not be assumed that it comes naturally, your reflections will improve over time. Reflections and the process of showing evidence of your activities should be about the quality of the evidence and reflection that demonstrate your learning process. The fundamentals are simple. Of any activity, it is appropriate to ask the following questions.
- What did I do? Who did I work with? What did I learn or experience? What values did I gain from the process? How was I perceived or what did I perceive. What were the outcomes, for me, the team I was working with, and others?
Reflections can be more than just answering the eight reflection questions. Students can keep a journal, a scrapbook, a blog, make CDs, take pictures, create photo essays, videos/DVDs or weblogs, or make up varied portfolios. The type of evidence chosen should reflect the learning objectives met, and the experience gained over the course of the experience.
CAS experiences must show or include
CAS experience as a whole, including reflections should include evidence that students have met the 8 learning objectives. Some may be demonstrated many times, in a variety of activities, but completion requires only that there is some evidence for every outcome.
- increased their awareness of their own strengths and areas for growth
They are able to see themselves as individuals with various skills and abilities, some more developed than others, and understand that they can make choices about how they wish to move forward. - undertaken new challenges
A new challenge may be an unfamiliar activity, or an extension to an existing one. - planned and initiated activities
Planning and initiation will often be in collaboration with others. It can be shown in activities that are part of larger projects, for example, ongoing school activities in the local community, as well as in small student-led activities. - worked collaboratively with others
Collaboration can be shown in many different activities, such as team sports, playing music in a band, or helping in a kindergarten. At least one project, involving collaboration and the integration of at least two of creativity, action and service, is required. - shown perseverance and commitment in their activities
At a minimum, this implies attending regularly and accepting a share of the responsibility for dealing with problems that arise in the course of activities. - engaged with issues of global importance
Students may participate in international projects but there are many global issues at a local or national level as well (i.e, environmental concerns, caring for the elderly). - considered the ethical implications of their actions
Ethical decisions arise in almost any CAS activity (for example, on the sports field, in musical composition, in relationships with others involved in service activities). Evidence of thinking about ethical issues can be shown in various ways, including journal entries and conversations with CAS advisers. - developed new skills
As with new challenges, new skills may be shown in activities that the student has not previously undertaken, or in increased expertise in an established area. All eight outcomes must be present for a student to complete the CAS requirement.