Welcome to the Calamvale Community College IB Core page as part of the core components of the IB Diploma. This guide will benefit not only IB Diploma students, but it will also provide parents, staff, and other community members with an understanding of the unique Core components and how to become involved in this unique learning voyage.
During their Diploma years, IB candidates will embark on an exciting journey of discovery and personal growth. These core experiences as part of the curriculum offer an unparalleled opportunity to discern personal strengths, follow passions, develop critical thinking and high level academic skills as well as challenge both the limits and preconceptions of what is possible.
IB DP Core Camp
Each year, our DP1 students head to Minjerribah (North Stradbroke Island) to engage in a Core camp. Based at the UQ Moreton Bay Research Station, students delve into a number of activities focused on building a range of skillsets and mindsets. The ATLs are our starting point with emphasis on social, affective, self-management, reflective and research skills.
It would not be a camp without some exploration of the beautiful island sights. We never waste an opportunity to get some CAS action in with some creative mindfulness and early morning beach exercise to stimulate the brain and body before our days of adventure.
There are days exploring indigenous knowledge systems with mangrove walks, and a guided indigenous art experience as well as explicit research skills to launch the Extended Essay journey. Students reflect, reflect and do more reflecting on their experiences along the way. Some of the highlights include the evening activities, with costumes, team building games and what we affectionately call “creative chaos".
The camp is a combination of productivity, collaboration and really develops a cohort culture of working towards success and becomes a memorable highlight of the IB Diploma.
The following information is sourced from the IBO Webpage
Creativity Activity Service (CAS)
For prospective students, CAS not only supplements your resume; when completed diligently and sincerely, it becomes the foundation of character. It builds your Respect, Responsibility, Initiative, and Resilience – this enables you to not only cope with your education, but thrive throughout your learning.
One of the components of the compulsory IB Core, CAS has many benefits in developing a holistic learner:
- CAS enables students to enhance their personal and interpersonal development by learning through experience.
- It provides opportunities for self-determination and collaboration with others, fostering a sense of accomplishment and enjoyment from their work.
- At the same time, CAS is an important counterbalance to the academic pressures of the DP.
Studied throughout the Diploma Programme, CAS involves students in a range of activities alongside their academic studies. It is not formally assessed. However, students reflect on their CAS experiences as part of the DP, and provide evidence of achieving the seven learning outcomes for CAS.
The three strands of CAS, which are often interwoven with particular activities, are characterized as follows:
Creativity – arts, and other experiences that involve creative thinking.
Activity – physical exertion contributing to a healthy lifestyle, complementing academic work elsewhere in the DP.
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.
In order to demonstrate these concepts, students are required to undertake a CAS project. The project challenges students to:
- show initiative
- demonstrate perseverance
- develop skills such as collaboration, problem solving and decision making.
- See the CCC CAS Handbook for further details
Extended Essay (EE)
The extended essay is an independent, self-directed piece of research, finishing with a 4,000-word paper.
The extended essay provides:
- practical preparation for undergraduate research
- an opportunity for students to investigate a topic of personal interest to them, which relates to one of the student's six DP subjects, or takes the interdisciplinary approach of a World Studies extended essay.
Through the research process for the extended essay, students develop skills in:
- formulating an appropriate research question
- engaging in a personal exploration of the topic
- communicating ideas
- developing an argument.
See the CCC EE Student Guidebook for further details
Theory of Knowledge (TOK)
It asks students to reflect on the nature of knowledge, and on how we know what we claim to know.
It is a thoughtful and purposeful inquiry into different ways of knowing, and into different kinds of knowledge, TOK is composed almost entirely of questions - The most central of these is "How do we know?"
Through discussions of these and other questions, students gain greater awareness of their personal and ideological assumptions, as well as developing an appreciation of the diversity and richness of cultural perspectives. It develops significant critical thinking and dialogue-based learning.