25 CAS Project Ideas for IB Students: Creativity, Activity & Service Abroad

Every IB student hits the same wall: the CAS programme requires sustained engagement across creativity, activity and service — roughly eighteen months of it — and the ideas list from school assembly only goes so far. Here are 25 ideas organised by strand, guidance on choosing between them, and the international option that covers all three strands in one sustained experience.

How CAS actually works (a 60-second refresher)

CAS runs alongside the Diploma for around 18 months. There is no hour-counting anymore — the IB replaced the old 150-hour rule with an expectation of regular commitment across all three strands, evidenced against seven learning outcomes through reflections your coordinator reviews. You also need at least one collaborative CAS project lasting a month or more. That structure rewards two things above all: experiences you can sustain, and experiences rich enough to reflect on honestly. Choose with those in mind and the portfolio writes itself.

Creativity: make something that didn’t exist before

1. Design a bilingual storybook for a partner school abroad — creativity now, service when you deliver it.
2. A photography project documenting a local tradition, exhibited at school with artist statements.
3. Compose and record a piece for a school or community event.
4. Build a website for a small charity that doesn’t have one — then train them to update it.
5. Run a mural project with a local youth club, from concept workshops to painting days.
6. Launch a podcast interviewing community elders — oral history that outlives the diploma.
7. Choreograph and teach a dance workshop for younger students.
8. Design reusable teaching aids for an early-years classroom — flashcards, phonics games, counting kits.

Activity: sustained physical challenge

9. Train for a trekking challenge — the reflection is in the preparation, setbacks and limits, not the summit photo.
10. Coach a junior sports team through a season — activity for you, service for them.
11. Learn a sport from scratch and log the journey from first session to first competition.
12. Organise a charity run where you also train participants — a genuine collaborative CAS project candidate.
13. Join a conservation project with real physical work — trail building, beach cleanups, reef surveys.
14. Cycle a long-distance route supporting a cause, with training blocks logged across months.

Service: real needs, real ownership

15. Weekly tutoring for younger students in a subject you excel at — the classic for a reason: sustained, evidenced, needed.
16. A structured placement at a local care home — conversation, activities, digital help.
17. Grant-writing help for a small NGO — service that doubles as a serious CV line.
18. Set up a school repair café or swap shop — service with an environmental spine.
19. Teach digital skills to older adults at a library or community centre.
20. Organise collection drives with a distribution partner — and follow the goods to delivery so the reflection has substance.

International CAS based programs: all three strands in one experience

21. Teaching support in Sri Lanka or Nepal — service in the classroom, creativity in lesson design, activity in the trekking and travel around it.
22. Sports coaching in Ghana — activity and service fused, with creative session planning for different age groups.
23. Marine and turtle conservation in Sri Lanka or Bali — physically demanding service producing data students can present back at school as the creative strand.
24. Community construction in India — genuine physical service with visible outcomes and honest reflections about what help means.
25. A guided school CAS expedition — our CAS based programs for IB schools are built specifically around the three strands, with reflection sessions structured into the itinerary and documentation your CAS coordinator can use as evidence.

How a CAS expedition maps to the strands, day by day

A typical ten-day program: project mornings are the service spine — teaching, conservation or community work alongside local teams. Afternoons rotate: creative workshops (lesson-material design, documentation projects, photography briefs) and physical activity blocks (trekking, snorkelling surveys, sports sessions with local clubs). Evenings twice a week are structured reflection — short, guided, written — so students fly home with evidence drafted rather than a camera roll and good intentions. That evidence, mapped against the seven learning outcomes, is what coordinators actually need.

Choosing well: the three-question filter

Whatever you pick, run it through three questions. Can I sustain it? One-off events make weak CAS. Does someone genuinely need it? Service that would happen without you isn’t service. Will I have something honest to reflect on? If the experience can’t surprise you, it can’t generate the reflections the learning outcomes demand. The best portfolios we see from IB groups pair one sustained local commitment with one intensive international experience — the local work proves consistency, the expedition provides depth.

Turning experiences into the seven learning outcomes

Whatever ideas you choose, your coordinator ultimately assesses evidence against the IB’s seven CAS learning outcomes — so pick experiences that give you honest material for them. In practice: identify strengths and areas for growth comes naturally from coaching or tutoring, where your own gaps surface weekly. Undertaking challenges and developing new skills is the trekking, the scuba survey work, the sport learned from zero. Initiating and planning belongs to whoever organises — the charity run, the collection drive, the mural project — which is why organising one thing beats joining five. Working collaboratively is your month-long CAS project by definition. Perseverance and commitment is proven by dates in your log, not adjectives in your reflections. Engaging with issues of global significance is where international service earns its place: conservation data, education access and community development stop being abstract once you’ve worked inside them. And ethics of choices and actions gets its best material from service that made you uncomfortable enough to think — the reflection entries that admit complexity always read strongest.

A practical trick our IB groups use: before the trip, print the seven outcomes on one page and jot which days are likely to feed which outcome. Evidence collection stops being an afterthought and the post-trip write-up takes an evening, not a holiday.

Frequently asked questions

Can one project count for multiple CAS strands?

Yes — IB encourages experiences spanning strands, provided you evidence each element distinctly. A conservation expedition can legitimately log service, activity and creativity if your reflections address each.

How many hours does CAS require?

There is no formal hour count — the IB expects regular commitment across all three strands for about 18 months, evidenced against the seven learning outcomes, plus one collaborative CAS project of at least a month.

Do international programs count for CAS?

Yes, when they involve genuine engagement rather than tourism. Your CAS coordinator signs off — providers should supply project documentation to support the evidence. We do this for every IB group we host.

How do school groups organise a CAS trip abroad?

Usually through the IB coordinator with a specialist provider. See our CAS based programs and the complete guide for IB student groups.

IB coordinator? Explore CAS based programs for schools or start a group enquiry.

Written by

Saurabh

Saurabh Sabharwal is the founder of Volunteering Solutions and its parent B Corporation, Impact Explorers. He has championed ethical, affordable volunteer travel since 2007 and writes about how to volunteer abroad responsibly.

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