American Community School
at Beirut
Creativity, Action, Service
Advisory Session
CAS

Creativity, action, service (CAS) is at the
heart of the Diploma Program

Each candidate must meet the CAS
requirement in addition to the other
mandatory components for the award of
the diploma
Aims of CAS
The CAS program aims to develop students who are:
 reflective thinkers – they understand their own
strengths and limitations, identify goals and devise
strategies for personal growth
 willing to accept new challenges and new roles
 aware of themselves as members of communities
with responsibilities towards each other and the
environment
 active participants in sustained collaborative projects
 balanced – they enjoy and find significance in a range
of activities involving intellectual, physical, creative
and emotional experiences
Creativity, Action, Service
The three strands of CAS are:
 Creativity: arts, and other experiences that
involve creative thinking.
 Action: physical exertion contributing to a
healthy lifestyle, complementing academic work
elsewhere in the Diploma Program.
 Service: an unpaid and voluntary exchange
that has a learning benefit for the student. The
rights, dignity and autonomy of all those
involved are respected.
Learning Outcomes
The CAS completion decision for the school in relation to each
student is, simply, “Have the eight learning outcomes been
achieved?”
Outcome
1: increase your awareness of your strengths and
areas for growth
Outcome
2: undertaken new challenges
Outcome
3: planned and initiated activities
Outcome
4: worked collaboratively with others.
◦At least one project must involve collaboration and integrate at least two
of creativity, action and service and be of significant duration.
Learning Outcomes

Outcome 5: shown perseverance and commitment on your
activities

Outcome 6: engaged with issues of global importance
◦ You are required to act on at least one issue of global significance. (for
example, environmental concerns, poverty, human rights, elderly, etc).

Outcome 7: considered the ethical implications of your actions
◦ Evidence of thinking about ethical issues can be shown in various ways,
including journal entries and conversations with CAS advisors.

Outcome 8: developed new skills
Learning Outcomes
All eight outcomes must be present for a
student to complete the CAS requirement.
Some may be demonstrated many times, in a
variety of activities, but completion requires only
that there is some evidence for every outcome.
Balanced CAS Program

A balanced CAS program includes:
◦ a reasonable balance of creative, active and service
activities
◦ at least one project that involves collaboration and
combines two of the three areas of creativity, action
and service

A non-balanced CAS program suffers from:
◦ Excess of action activities, no service or no
creativity
◦ Excess of creativity, no service
◦ Excess of service, no creativity or action
◦ No project
Range and diversity of activities
Not any activity is a CAS activity!!!
 For an activity to be considered CAS-worthy, it
must fulfill ALL FOUR of these requirements:

1. real, purposeful activities, with significant outcomes
2. personal challenge – tasks must extend the
student and be achievable in scope
3. thoughtful consideration, such as planning,
reviewing progress, reporting
4. reflection on outcomes and personal learning
Examples of Creativity activities

In-school activities:
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MUN
Debate & Forensics
Alef Be
Art workshop
Chess: joining the chess club and take it a step further (organizing a
tournament, inviting a skilled player to come to ACS, etc.)
Film club at ACS: joining the club, organizing events, writing critiques
about a film in Alef Be, etc.
Contemporary Dance
Current Affairs Think Tank (should stretch it)
Technical Theater
First aid workshop: those interested should contact me so that I
organize it.
Yoga
Examples of Creativity activities

Out of School
◦ Yoga
◦ Dance: oriental, Zumba (creativity and action),
Hip Hop (also C and A), etc.
◦ Photography (should also organize a show for
the pictures taken)
◦ First aid at Red Cross, at LAU
◦ Learning a new instrument
Examples of Action activities
Examples of Action activities:
 In-school activities:
◦ Joining a sport team

Out of school activities:
◦ Joining organized hiking trips
◦ Joining a Gym
◦ Joining a fitness dance class (Zumba, Hip Hop)
Examples of Service activities
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In-School:
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Sister School
Give a child a smile
Adopt an Orphan
Cheerios
Special Olympics (can be also a project)
Out of School:
◦ Nasma Center
◦ Rifaq El-Darb (can be a project)
◦ Dar El Aytam (can be a project)
ACS CS hours and CAS

IB students should get their school CS hours
from their CAS service activities.

IB students should report their service hours
to Ms. Shatah to be counted towards the
school required service hours.

Any IB student not fulfilling their school
CS hours will be not considered as
having completed their CAS program.
Personal Projects

Students should be involved in at least one
project that:
◦ involves teamwork
◦ integrates two or more of creativity, action and
service, and
◦ is of significant duration

Projects are opportunities to engage “with
issues of global importance” such as poverty,
human rights, elderly, etc.
Examples of CAS Projects
Coaching athletic teams at underprivileged
schools (UNRWA schools, Palestinian camps,
orphanages, etc.)
 Art workshops for small kids at Dar El Aytam
 Painting murals in public places or in
underprivileged schools
 Entertaining elderly people and organizing
events for them
 Children Cancer club (planning committee)
 Sister school (only if you are part of the
planning committee)

Examples of CAS Projects
Go Green club
 Global Issues Network
 Special Olympics
 Starting or training MUN clubs at other
schools
 Planting trees in Lebanon (you need to do
all the planning and contacting
organizations, recruiting students, etc.)

More on CAS project

Can be part of a school activity as long as
there is evidence that you (the group)
have initiated, planned, and carried on
activities:
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Sister school
Adopt an Orphan
Special Olympics
Global Issues Network
Etc.
Final note on CAS projects
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Collaboration: with IB or non-IB students

Sustainability is required

Commitment is crucial especially
when dealing with kids or elderly
Activities that are NOT CAS
School activities that are not CAS:
 Teddy bear club
 Helping out in the carnival
 Recycling at ACS
 Ushering events at ACS
 Any “STAND ALONE” activity. Ex:
Participating in one day CS field trip
Final note on CAS activities

Activities should not replicate other parts of
the student’s Diploma Program work.
◦ This excludes routine practices performed by the IB Music
students.
Activities should not be isolated, sporadic, and
should emphasize quality not quantity.
 Activities should not be crammed into mini-vacations
as CAS cannot be a series of short-term activities.
However, all activities do not need to last 18 months.
 The focus should be on showing that your CAS
experience was an ongoing and significant

CAS Documentation
All CAS documentation is done
using the software ManageBac
 Documentation may take many forms:
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Journals
Videos
Photos
Websites
Etc.
Its extent should match the significance of
the particular activity to the student.
Reflections
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For each activity, a set of outcomes, from the eight
CAS learning outcomes, should be identified.
The reflections should address the identified
learning outcomes.
◦ Descriptive reflections that do not address the identified
learning outcomes are not appropriate.

Each reflection needs to specifically and ultimately
answer these questions:
◦ What did I learn from the activity?
◦ Which of the 8 learning outcomes did this activity help
me to accomplish and how did it help to me reach this
learning goal?
Frequency of reflections

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Depends on the activity and varies from one
person to another. Whenever there is something
interesting going on, you should reflect.
Activities that require no more than one
reflection per month:
◦ routine activities like the Gym.
◦ Learning a new instrument for beginners.

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Sports: once every other week to reflect on
development of skills. Also, before and after a
tournament.
RULE: ANY ACTIVITY NOT REFLECTED UPON
FOR A MONTH WILL BE CLOSED
Evidence of participation
As part of CAS documentation, the students
should provide evidence of participation
such as: a certificate of participation in a
workshop, a membership in a Gym, pictures
of the event, etc.
 Evidence of participation does not replace
reflection and vice versa

Common problems with CAS
documentation
Not logging your activities on ManageBac: activities
that are not on ManageBac are not acknowledged.
 No documentation: an activity that has not been
reflected upon at least once per month will be
closed.
 Reflections not addressing the learning outcomes:
descriptive reflections are not appropriate.

◦ Should reflect on the growth within you.
◦ Don’t glorify yourself!
◦ Learning outcomes that are ticked but not reflected upon
should be removed

Not providing evidence of participation: pictures,
membership, certificate of participation, newspaper
articles, etc.
Evaluation of CAS
The school’s final decision on completion is based
on meeting the following CAS requirements:
 Requirement one: Students must plan and complete a
series of CAS activities that are: real, purposeful activities,
with significant outcomes. Activities should be challenging
tasks that extend the student and be achievable in scope.
CAS activities should have a written plan, a progress
review and a reflection on the outcome.
 Requirement two: Students must exhibit that they have
accomplished the 8 learning outcomes in the CAS guide
during the 18-month CAS commitment.
 Requirement three: Students must demonstrate a
reasonable balance of creative, active, and service
activities.

CAS Evaluation
Requirement four: Students must provide
proof of their CAS work. They should use
the CAS program “ManageBac”.
 Requirement five: Students must reflect
on EACH of their CAS activities using the
CAS program “ManageBac”.
 Requirement six: Students must complete
at least one project that involves
collaboration and integrates at least two of
creativity, action and service, and is of
significant duration.

CAS Evaluation
Requirement seven: Students must
demonstrate an 18-month commitment to CAS
and must show evidence that some activities were
NOT stand-alone, but that some activities were
significantly involved over a period of time. CAS
cannot just be a series of one-time projects.
CAS cannot be completed in a short time span,
then not worked on at all for long spans of time.
 Requirement eight: Students must meet with
their CAS advisors regularly as scheduled at the
beginning of the year to evaluate progress and to
submit forms.

Meeting with the CAS Advisor
Meet with the CAS advisor periodically. All meetings
are scheduled on the IB internal Calendars and
reminders will be sent out.
 You can always ask for a meeting to get guidance.
