The CAS Programme

Creativity - Action - Service                                 

Direct Link to the online CAS Manager 

CAS is Experiential Education (learning from experience).

Aims / Learning Outcomes of CAS
To help the personal development of students with regards to:
• becoming reflective thinkers and increasing their awareness of their own strengths and areas for growth.
• accepting new challenges and roles for themselves.
• planning and initiating activities in their various communities.
• working collaboratively with others.
• showing perseverance and commitment.
• engaging in issues of global importance.
• considering the ethical implications of their actions.
• developing new skills.

CAS and the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme
The CAS Programme is a central part of the IB Diploma Programme. It goal is to involve students in real, purposeful activities that provide personal challenges and opportunities for consideration and reflection on their personal learning. The activities which are undertaken by the students should supplement and counter-balance the demanding academic requirements of the IB Diploma Programme.

Requirements of the CAS Programme
The CAS Programme is made up of three elements: Creativity, Action and Service. Students must engage themselves in a minimum of 150 hours of activities across the three elements of CAS. This equates to roughly 50 hours of activities within each element. Although there are three elements to the CAS Programme, it is the development of the whole individual that is the ultimate goal. Therefore, each student's CAS Programme should not be an attempt to count and fulfill their hours, but to engage themselves in truly worthwhile activities that will benefit their personal development.

CAS Activities
There are many different kinds of acceptable CAS activities. This is where each student is able to draw on their own interests, skills and hobbies to find activities which best suit them. The most rewarding experiences that students have often come from activities that involve the community outside the school, whether that be locally here in Zuoz, at the national level in Switzerland, or globally.

    Creativity - drama, music, artwork, sculpture, writing, organization of events
   Action - team sports, individual sports, hiking, biking, dance, yoga
   Service - social unpaid service to the community (not for the family or a company),volunteering at a Kindergarten, helping at a home for disabled individuals, raising funds/awareness for help organizations, projects that help maintain or improve the environment.

CAS Programme Evaluation
A main aspect of the CAS Programme is for students to become independent and responsible, plan and initiate their own activities, and keep records of the process which they go through.The most successful CAS student will utilize reflection at all stages of their activities: setting goals and objectives at the beginning of an activity, reviewing these goals and their progress during the activity and a final summative reflection at the end of the activity.
In order to ensure a successful CAS activity, students must keep an accurate record. The Lyceum Alpinum Zuoz's CAS Programme record keeping is done with an online service developed for and by previous IB Students called ManageBac.

At the start of the school year, students will have an introduction to the CAS Programme and will receive instruction on how to use the website: http://lyceumalpinum.managebac.com

Throughout the two years that students are a part of the CAS Programme they must demonstrate weekly commitment to their activities and reflection.
For each of the eight learning outcomes, students must also submit evidence of their personal development. This evidence can come in many forms, whether it be newspaper clippings, pictures, journal entries, websites, etc. Only with this evidence and answering the final reflection questions will a student's CAS activity be ready for the Supervisor to evaluate.

Supervision of CAS Activities
All CAS Activities must be supervised by an adult who is responsible for helping the student reflect on their activities. When an activity is completed, the student's supervisor will need to fill out an online response based on the student's performance.
The supervisor is ultimately responsible for reporting the number of hours the student has satisfactorily completed for that particular project. The supervisor may assign all completed hours to one area of CAS (Creativity, Action or Service) or they may split the total number of hours between two or all three of the areas. This should be done according to the goals and feedback from the CAS Coordinator at the beginning of the activity. A short paragraph summarizing the students’ performance completes the supervisor’s duty.

If at any time during the activity the supervisor should become displeased with the student they are encouraged to speak with the CAS Coordinator directly.

Best of luck for a great CAS Programme!

Tavis Davidson
CAS Programme Coordinator
tavis.davidson@lyceum-alpinum.ch