CAS: Creativity, Action and Service

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Students design a program of participation in creative, active, and community service pursuits, fostering students' awareness and appreciation of life outside the academic arena. Students are required to participate in CAS during the entire two years of the Diploma program. Students submit evidence of, and reflections about, their experiences in a personally designed portfolio.

Creativity: arts and other experiences that involve creative thinking which have a definite goal or outcome.

Action: physical exertions contributing to a healthy lifestyle, complementing academic work in the Diploma Program and provide a significant challenge.

Service: an unpaid and voluntary exchange that has a learning benefit for the students, where the rights, dignity and autonomy of all involved are respected. Political and religious activities may be included only if the goals promote the well-being of all people, regardless of affiliation. (Click here for community service opportunities.)

CAS FORMS

CAS Handbook
All you need to know about CAS

CAS Project Proposal Form
You need to complete a Proposal form for EACH anticipated project.

CAS Project Evaluation Form
At the end of your CAS project, you need to complete the top of this form and then give it to your project supervisor to fill out.

CAS Checklist of Essentals

Regular extracurricular involvement balanced across the 3 areas and across the two years of the Diploma Program. A minimum of 150 hours, evenly divided across the areas and spread throughout the duration of the program.
A Worksheet on Manage Bac (http://cleveland.mangagebac.com) for each activity. An adult supervisor should be listed for each activity.
All learning outcomes must be met by one or more activities, including at least one project that involves teamwork and integrates two or more of creativity, action, and service.
Evidence of participation for each activity in the form of pictures, a published membership roster, a certificate of completion, newspaper article or website chronicling your work, etc. A minimum of 10 total pieces of evidence is required in your CAS portfolio.
1 typed page (minimum) final reflection on each activity. It must be clear what happened, why it happened, how it happened, and what its value was. A series of journal entries over the course of the activity is encouraged. Link to “reflections” from your worksheet and either attach a file, or use the journaling feature in the ManageBac program.

Questions to guide reflections:
- How do you feel about this activity? How and why did you choose it? How are/were you challenging yourself?
- What are/were your expectations? How have they changed over time?
- What did you accomplish? How did you deal with difficulties?
- What is the value of the activity? For you? For others?
- What did you learn? How might this learning apply to other situations? How has it changed your perspective?

Avoid hoop-jumping:

Getting hours “out of the way” over the summer defeats the purpose of learning the value of a balanced and integrated lifestyle. While summer projects are not excluded from your portfolio of activities, C.A.S. learning should be concurrent with academic learning.
The extent of reflection should match the significance of the activity. There is no point in writing lengthy accounts about relatively routine experiences.
Use significant learning experiences to help others. Promote the organizations and activities that you think would be valuable for other students. This is taking initiative! It is also authentically relevant to making the world (starting right here in our school community) “a better and more peaceful” place.

DEADLINE: All CAS Projects must be completed on ManageBac by Spring Break of your senior year.

For more information, please contact Cleveland's IB Coordinator, Jennifer Wiandt, at jwiandt2@pps.net or 503-916-5120.