• Creativity, Action, Service (CAS)

    Creativity, Action, Service (CAS) is at the heart of the Diploma Programme, involving students in a range of activities that take place alongside their academic studies throughout the IB Diploma Programme. The component's three strands, often interwoven with particular activities, are characterized as follows:
    • Creativity - arts and other experiences that involve creative thinking
    • Action - physical exertion contributing to a healthy lifestyle, complementing academic work elsewhere in the IB Diploma Programme
    • Service  - an unpaid and voluntary exchange that has a learning benefit for the student.
    CAS encourages students to be involved in activities as individuals and as part of a team that take place in local, national and international contexts. CAS enables students to enhance their personal and interpersonal development as well as their social and civic development, through experiential learning, lending an important counterbalance to the academic pressures of the rest of the IB Diploma Programme. It should be both challenging and enjoyable - a personal journey of self-discovery that recognizes each student's individual starting point.
    Activities should provide:
    • real, purposeful activities, with significant outcomes
    • personal challenge - tasks must extend the student and be achievable in scope
    • thoughtful consideration, such as planning, reviewing progress and reporting
    • reflection on outcomes and personal learning.
     
    All Pittsburgh Obama students in Grades 11-12 are required to complete a total of 150 CAS hours by February of their senior year. The hours must be logged in the Managebac system.  
     
    Students can access the Managebac system at obamaacademy.managebac.com.  Address any questions to Mr. Joseph Ehman, jehman1@pghboe.net.