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IB – The Foundation of CAS Trips

CAS Trips was created by a team of experienced IB Educators to challenge the status quo of educational travel.

Since our foundation in 2013, we have developed an original, holistic methodology that focuses on pushing the boundaries of experiential learning to positively impact students’ character development, while maintaining an uncompromising approach to Sustainability.

Program Development

Using the UN Sustainable Development Goals as our framework, we research the key global  issues affecting the Destinations where we travel, cultivate links with grassroots organizations striving to tackle them in a local context, and work with them to develop mutually beneficial CAS Trips activities.

Activities

Inspired by International Baccalaureate pedagogy, we create activities that immerse in local culture and actively challenge students in the categories of Creativity, Activity and Service. Our aim is to push students out of their comfort zones and prove how and why CAS can be meaningful and fun at the same time. 

IB & CAS

We inspire students by harnessing the power of travel to open their minds to the real-life value of CAS. Our programs engage with the 7 Learning Outcomes in unique ways, and we integrate Reflections Workshops and CAS Project Challenges to give students the tools, knowledge, and experience to succeed with CAS back home.

Reflections Workshops

Reflection is a fundamental pillar of CAS but creating meaningful, creative reflections is not a straightforward process. Every CAS Trip involves a Reflections Challenge Workshop in which students must use multimedia to reflect before, during and after their CAS Trips Experiences to demonstrate that Reflection can really be fun and easy!

CAS Project Challenge

Our on-trip CAS Project Challenge Workshop ensures student impact continues beyond the trip. Using the 5 Stages of CAS, small teams of students use their on-trip experiences and the UN SDGs as a lens to investigate and plan a self-initiated CAS Project to be implemented back home: Think Global, Act Local.

Ethical Service

Ethical Service is a pillar of all CAS Trips. It fulfils a genuine need with the rights, dignity and autonomy of all those involved respected at all times. In urban Destinations, we partner with grassroots organizations to give students a taste of hands-on, meaningful volunteering, while in developing countries we follow a model of Community-Led Service.

IB Learner Profile

The aim of all IB programs is to develop internationally minded people who, recognizing their common humanity and shared guardianship of the planet, help to create a better and more peaceful world. As IB learners we strive to be:

Inquirers

We firmly believe that personal development comes directly through personal experience. CAS Trips participants will engage in experiences designed to push them out of their comfort zone, engaging with challenging topics that will encourage independent research, inquiry and collaborative work.

Open-minded

Through direct, personal interaction with communities, CAS Trips participants will develop a genuine understanding of cultural identity, tradition and problems and be able to critically evaluate the values and ideals of others in relation to their own. We use travel as a powerful tool to illuminate the path of personal development.

Knowledgeable

CAS Trips’ principal aim is to Educate, Challenge and Inspire. Through our unique methodology and frameworks, we introduce UN SDGs in a local and global context, make a real difference through Service Challenges and open a genuine dialog to develop a genuine understanding of these issues.

Caring

CAS Trips participants demonstrate empathy, compassion and respect by engaging with local people, understanding the issues relevant to them and showing a commitment to service. Students are taught transferable knowledge to take home and apply to their ongoing CAS commitments to ensure a sustainable, long-lasting positive impact on the world.

Thinkers

Reflections workshops and CAS Project sessions are a staple part of every CAS Trips experience. In these forums, students are encouraged to use critical and creative thinking skills to analyze and take responsible action on complex problem, exercising initiative in making reasoned, ethical decisions.

Risk-takers

CAS Trips’ dynamic and engaging repertoire of CAS activities have been specifically designed by IB teachers to confront students with challenges that will engage the IB Learner Profile. Students will have to overcome independent and collaborative work challenges and be resourceful and resilient throughout.

Communicators

We place a huge emphasis on collaboration, teamwork and effective situation management. We encourage independent thinking and creative expression through a variety of activities designed to push students out of their comfort zone and communicate ideas and solutions effectively.

Balanced

Our unique Reflections Workshops teach students how to conduct genuine and purposeful reflections, encouraging balanced contemplation, analysis and to recognize our interdependence with other people and with the world in which we live.

Principled

Through CAS activities and challenges, CAS Trips participants must make considered decisions with integrity and honesty, with a strong sense of fairness and justice, and with respect for the dignity and rights of other people everywhere. Our methodology of experiential learning allows students to take responsibility for their actions and the consequences.

Reflective

Reflections are an integral part of every CAS Trips experience. We give students a framework to thoughtfully consider the world with our ideas and experiences. Through team work, CAS projects and challenges, participants understand their strengths and weaknesses in order to support their personal development.

Begin your breathtaking journey today

Contact us to find out how CAS Trips can help your students achieve their learning outcomes during a school trip abroad!

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