Welcome to CAS Profiles, where we exhibit the completed CAS Projects of IB Diploma students at SASPD.
CAS, which stands for “Creativity, Activity, Service”, is a component of the IB Diploma Program, which requires students to complete a month-long activity following the stages of investigation, preparation, action, reflection, and demonstration. There are virtually no restrictions to activities students are allowed to do, but they must be collaborative and include at least one strand of creativity, activity, or service. The project process involves not only the main project, but also a series of reflections.
Combining children and cooking—a terrifying prospect to some. Sophie and Abby turned their passions for children and cooking into an interactive activity for SAS elementary schoolers. One of the few CAS projects that managed to remarkably avoid the harsh impact of Covid, their CAS project compared to peers’ went comparatively smoothly.
Interview conducted with Sophie Burgess 23’, on behalf of Sophie Burgess and Abby Biggs 23’.
q) Could you introduce your project?
a) We held a cooking ASA in the elementary school, for students in grades three and four. There were six sessions in total, and during each session, we cooked or baked a different recipe. So over the course of the ASA, we made tacos, muffins, pizza, sushi, spring rolls, and sugar cookies. The kids mainly did the cooking, but we were there to help guide them and teach them some new skills.
q) Could you tell me about your experiences planning for the sessions? What did you need to do in advance?
a) Since we decided to run an ASA, We initially received a lot of help from Ms. Eva. She was in contact with the elementary school to organize sign-ups, reserve the ES kitchen, and fill out the paperwork associated with an ES ASA. from there on, Abby and I did most of the planning. we decided what dish to make, researched a recipe, and found links on Epermarket for the ingredients we needed Ms. Eva to purchase a week in advance. Overall, with the help of Ms. Eva and Ms. Ballon (who was our CAS project supervisor), this ASA was fairly straightforward to organize as long as we got everything done well in advance before each session.
q) Where did you get the inspiration to make this your project in the first place?
a) I really wanted to do something with kids, and we wanted our project to be really structured so we could get it done in a timely fashion, so we quickly decided to do an elementary school ASA. From there we decided to do cooking lessons for our asa as both my partner and I love cooking. Additionally, Ms. Ballon had a couple of students do a french cooking ES ASA the year prior, which worked out really well, so she already had experience with this kind of project and recommended that it would be a good fit for us.
q) Everything seemed like it went pretty well for this project, and you guys were smart for getting it done early so that the lockdown didn’t affect it! If you could go back and change something about the project, what would it be?
a) That is a very difficult question. Honestly, I am not sure if there is anything I would change. The only thing I can think of would be to add a bit more information about the cultures which the dishes came from into the lessons. This way, the kids would gain more awareness and knowledge about a couple of the different cultures in the world and at our school.