Creativity Activity Service (CAS)

CAS stands for Creativity, Activity, Service and is among the essential elements that students must complete as part of the IB Diploma Programme (DP). CAS helps students to change and to see the world differently. For many, CAS is the highlight of the IB Diploma Programme.

The ISL CAS Programme Coordinator is Mr. Dunn, who has been mentoring High School students with their CAS experiences for over 9 years.

Some CAS experiences may involve multiple strands. For example, sewing face masks would be both Creativity and Service. A sponsored swim would be Activity and Service. The best experiences address all 3 strands.

• Working in a primary classroom is mainly Service, but could also involve Creativity if it involved planning lessons.
• Student reflections would look at the strengths and areas for growth and the experience would likely have led to the development of new skills (e.g. how to design a lesson plan).
• A challenge might be teaching younger children while reflecting on the obstacles and difficulties along the way. If the student planned some lessons themselves, then it could satisfy the third learning outcome as well.
• Commitment and perseverance comes with longer-term experiences (e.g. 6 months or more) and likely involves working collaboratively with staff and students.
• Students may have done lessons linked to key global issues like poverty, gender equality, health and fitness, environmental care, worldwide education, targets found in the UN sustainable goals etc.
• Ethically, you would have needed to keep the students safe, support them and their self-esteem when they make mistakes, etc.

Each individual CAS experience does not need to meet all of the learning outcomes; however, the collective experiences must have addressed all of the outcomes. Evidence will include text reflections, audio files, video files, photos, vlogs, podcasts etc. Quality reflections help students consider how their actions have impacted themselves as learners as well as how they have affected others. You can see some sample CAS reflections here.