Why CAS?

According to the IB philosophy international education must go beyond the provision of information alone and include the development of attitudes and values which transcend barriers of race, class, religion, gender or politics.

Through CAS, the student will find a counterbalance to the academic world. Participation in theatre productions, sports and community service activities encourages the students to complement the academic disciplines of the curriculum and to provide balance to demands of scholarship placed upon the IB student.

CAS is part of the diploma requirement and failure to meet the requirement will result in no diploma being awarded. A minimum of 150 hours during the two years, i.e. 3 to 4 hours per week with time distributed evenly among creativity, action and service.

Creativity may involve a wide range of arts and other activities as well as the creativity of the student to design and carry out service or other projects, i.e. establishing a debate club and monitor the organization and rules for the club or taking initiative to creating a web site for the student group.

Action can include participation in expeditions, individual and team sports and physical training as well as carrying our creative and service projects and training for service.

Service is normally thought of as community or social service (environmental, international projects) but it may also involve tutoring other students.

Each activity or project must be monitored for appropriateness, quality and student participation. Evaluation by the activity leader or the school and self-evaluation by the student is demanded.

CAS Requirements

For each activity that is participated in, students must fill out a CAS activity form which will need to be signed by the adult sponsor of that activity. Also, for each activity the student must collect evidence of the activity. This evidence may include photos, brochures, programs, or completed works.

Each student has to complete an essay summarizing and reflecting on the CAS experience as a whole. The paper should touch on the information related to the following guide questions along with anything else that a student wishes to share and reflect upon regarding the CAS experiences. The contents of questions overlap somewhat and are meant to be prompts for writing.