Number of CAS activities needed?

[Sarabunny]

Over the summer I was a teen counselor for a week long 4H camp, which counts towards Creativity, Action, and Service hours. That alone will fulfill a lot of my CAS hours, but I was wondering, do I need to fulfill CAS with a certain number of activities? For example, can all my Creativity hours be from camp, or do I need to get those hours in several different activities?

Hope that made sense

[Arrowhead]

I think the rules of this differ across schools. At my old school, we were not allowed to take more than 20 hours from any activity even if that activity alone could give us 100 hours or so. A friend of mine who went to an IB school in India had a rule that they couldn't take more than 8 hours per activity per year. So again, it varies.

Also nowadays, you have a lot of fancy-shmancy new rules for CAS with a CAS Project (which I believe is doing a long-term project involving two or more CAS elements) apart from all the other things that you involve yourself in.

So I would say wait, collect your hours over summer and when school starts for you, ask you IB Coordinator because he will tell you better than anyone else where your school stands on this issue.

[Ice Cream is really yummy]

I also missed an entire week of summer school (I was taking two academic classes that didn't fit into my schedule... ohhh IB :/) to go volunteer at a camp. I was going to do it anyway for myself, but I wanted to know if it counted towards CAS so that I was prepared to find a supervisor, and get any necessary "proof" that I was there (eg pictures). My CAS coordinator was aware of what I was doing and basically "approved it" before I even did it (... but I still haven't put it on ManageBac ...)

Anyhow, I wanted to know how many hours I could get out of it, because I was basically a counselor myself as well as the Ad Hoc in our committee... I was going to be camping WITH my group and I, along with the other counselors, were there one day early to help prepare. My CAS coordinator basically told me treat it like a day at work; I should really not have more than 8 hours, and 10 hours would be the MAX. I had to look at my schedule with a critical eye and eliminate any "free time" that I had, and also the time I had to "sleep"... basically anything "non CAS" if you think about it.

But honestly... every CAS coordinator is different. Some apply some general rules that you must follow to make their life a little easier. The best person to talk to at this point to see what you can do is in fact your CAS coordinator Don't worry... they won't bite!! They're there to help you

Now, regarding your second question. No there is not a set amount of activities that you must fulfill during your CAS (according to my knowledge), BUT it's good to have a wide variety within each of the three letters in "CAS". Depending on your CAS coordinator, I think that it is sufficient to say that they will accept that one activity can occupy many of your, for example, action hours. But keep in mind that variety is always best Just like veggies!!!

Another thing to keep in mind are the different outcomes that you must all touch on by the end of your CAS years. One great thing to do is to try to keep it balanced. Also, it's always self fulfilling to be on top of CAS. It's one of those things that is time consuming, and can ultimately consume YOU if you let it drag on for too long.

You will also be doing some evaluations with your CAS coordinator (well, that's what we do at our school) to help to track your overall CAS performance. You are probably going to want to impress your teacher instead of hearing a long lecture from them

One more thing I'd like to add is that CAS is there to help keep your balanced. And if you don't have that mindset, the hours will never get done. This may be a hectic time with the IB and all, but seriously... when is it ever going to slow down? It may at retirement (possibly...) ... but you can't bet on it. Let this be the time to help shape you into a better person. With CAS, you need to write reflections and such, right? So why not do something worthwhile and keep it in mind while writing your resume or something Try to kill two birds with one stone, it's very possible

Edited August 26, 2011 by egr12resa

[Arrowhead]

But honestly... every CAS coordinator is different. Some apply some general rules that you must follow to make their life a little easier. The best person to talk to at this point to see what you can do is in fact your CAS coordinator Don't worry... they won't bite!! They're there to help you

Not all CAS coordinators are nice, just sayin'. If you get on their bad side, they can be really mean (here, I talk from experience), they can try to cut down your hours and make you do more work (also from experience), they can tell you that because you finished 180 Creativity Hours and 135 Service Hours in Year 1 so that you didn't have too much extra work in Year 2, they're cutting your hours in half so that you keep at it the "IB way *insert contemptuous smile here*." (also from experience). They can push you to the brink of madness and will ultimately be the reason you fill condoms with helium and let them up in his office at the crack of dawn.

Edited August 26, 2011 by Arrowhead

[Ice Cream is really yummy]

But honestly... every CAS coordinator is different. Some apply some general rules that you must follow to make their life a little easier. The best person to talk to at this point to see what you can do is in fact your CAS coordinator Don't worry... they won't bite!! They're there to help you

Not all CAS coordinators are nice, just sayin'. If you get on their bad side, they can be really mean (here, I talk from experience), they can try to cut down your hours and make you do more work (also from experience), they can tell you that because you finished 180 Creativity Hours and 135 Service Hours in Year 1 so that you didn't have too much extra work in Year 2, they're cutting your hours in half so that you keep at it the "IB way *insert contemptuous smile here*." (also from experience). They can push you to the brink of madness and will ultimately be the reason you fill condoms with helium and let them up in his office at the crack of dawn.

Arrowhead has a point. Not all CAS coordinators are really "on your side" I haven't really had a problem with my CAS coordinator... yet (HAHA).

One comment I'd like to make is to stay consistent. CAS requirements have somewhat changed and you are asked to have like a balanced amount of CAS hours for each year. So basically, you end up working on CAS for a period of 20 months, instead of trying to get your 150+ hours and say "HEY! I'm done!" And if you pop up with +100 hours out of blue... then, they might be suspicious or something :/