What do you have to do at CAS?

[skategirl]

What do you have to do at CAS?

Do you have to search your own work or does the school help you?

And how difficult is it to find something?

I think, if I go abroad to do my IB it will be more difficult to find something. Because my English wouldn't be as well as the English from the other students and everything is new there.

[Summer Glau]

CAS stands for Creativity, Action, Service. For Creativity you can do 'artsy' things, like painting, playing an instrument, etc. Action is sports/physical activity, like swimming, running, etc. Lastly, Service is mostly volunteering. Some examples would be helping at a homeless shelter, tutoring other students, etc.

This thread shows some examples of CAS activities other people have done/are doing.

Just by browsing the forum I've noticed that school have different rules for what counts as CAS. Make sure you check with your school before you start your activites

Your school may have some after-school activities you can join which can count for CAS (ex. choir, art club, sports teams, tutoring, etc.) If nothing is offered at school then you can certainly find CAS activities to do in the community.

Judging from your written English, it seems to be good enough to communicate with people and thus do CAS

[Julie]

I wrote a bunch of ideas on this discussion from before that combine C, A and S

[∫ Jorge δx]

CAS can be nearly anything you want really.

As long as you can state that you set goals for yourself during your activity (if applicable. e.g. for action, you could go to a gym and set yourself a goal of increasing physical endurance), and also speak about learning outcomes of the activity. Essentially, these are things you expect to learn from the activity.

There are 8 learning outcomes, and to finish CAS, you need at least 2 activities that evidence each (activities may have more than 1 learning outcome too), as well as (in most schools) roughly 150 hours of it altogether (50 C, 50 A, 50 S).

The expected learning outcomes are:

• increased awareness of strengths and areas for growth
  
• undertaken new challenges
  
• planned and initiated activities
  
• worked collaboratively with others
  
• shown perseverance and commitment
  
• engaged with issues of global importance
  
• considered the ethical implications
  
• developed new skills
  

It might sound like a lot, but it really isn't. If you can get into school sports teams, don't mind doing community service, helping the school out during events, doing tutoring or getting involved in arts, school plays or basically anything that isn't a paid job... You can finish all your CAS off during your first year.

Also, at some point in your first year you will be given a CAS project with randomly chosen people from your DP exam session, and you are expected to work as a group in an activity that involves at least two of the areas of CAS (ie Creativity and Service, Service and Action, Creativity and Action, or all three).

[Julie]

Oh... here I also explain shortly how to keep a CAS journal... Maybe it will just give you an idea of how you will have to reflect on the work you do:

I love CAS and am obsessive about it. So really, if you need help with anything in the future, let me know and I'll be right on it

Oh, also... I uploaded some CAS forms that I use for CAS reflections in the Files section, so if you can access them they are really useful. They are the ones our CAS coordinator created for us to make life easier in IB, and it works