Category: Dhyay Himanshu Kapadia

Activity	Components (C/A/S)	Duration with start date and end date	Learning Outcomes
OGIS Football Tournament 2015	Activity	8/12/2015 to 8/15/2015	Lo-1, Lo-3, Lo-4, Lo-5
“When in doubt Dance it out”-Kalautsav	Creativity	10/15/2015 to 1/30/2016	Lo-1, Lo-2, Lo-4, Lo-5
The Time I was really Down to Earth	Activity and Service	10/9/2015	Lo-1, Lo-2, Lo-5
CAS trip Naggar	Activity	12/26/2015 to 4/2/2016	Lo-1, Lo-2, Lo-4, Lo-6
Tree Plantation Session at KV Central School	Service	8/19/2016	Lo-1, Lo-5, Lo-6, Lo-7
Make a Difference! Spend a with special Kids!- CAS Project	Activity, Creativity, Service	8/2/2016 to 9/3/2016	Lo-1, Lo-2, Lo-3, Lo-4, Lo-5, Lo-6, Lo-7
La Cuisine français!!- French Cooking	Activity, Creativity	5/27/2016	Lo-1, Lo-2, Lo-4, Lo-5, Lo-6, Lo-7
Being A teacher for the first time!- Teacher’s Day Celebration	Creativity, Service	9/5/2015	Lo-1, Lo-2, Lo-3, Lo-4, Lo-5, Lo-6, Lo-7

CAS was my favorite core component out of three. I love the whole idea and aim of this subject,  Creativity, Action, and Service which was done for 18 long months really help me to rejuvenate myself.

The first activity that comes to my mind when I think about CAS is my CAS project that I organized which was about spending a day special kids. This is an event which is very close to my heart as this was a very first time where I initiated an event. Though this event is very close to my heart this a very difficult event, we faced many problems before, during and after the event however those problems gave me more experience and showed me the areas where I had to improve and also helped me to develop the person I am today. One of the main reasons why this event is special because my partner and I were able to give a stage to normal students to spend time and do activities with special kids and be a part of their life.

I have learnt a lot from CAS like- having patience, time management, cooperation, but most importantly going out of comfort zone. Each and every activity made me go out of my comfort zone, it was hard but it beneficial as it gave huge amount experience that I could use for my future and also helped me to develop myself. Every activity was a learning experience for me and a whole new insight into myself. The Service activities made me more open-minded, reflective, caring and tolerant to the world around. In addition, I also realized how important being a good communicator and a well-balanced student was.

In these 18 long months I have learnt tons and tons of different things which always helped me to grow better as a person. Before going into IB I was never a good communicator, I never went out of my comfort zone to do something, but after joining IB and doing CAS I developed and learnt many new things like- Never giving up, taking risks, developing myself of being a balanced student between studies and extracurricular activities and the most important going out of my comfort zone. As I learnt many things from CAS I also faced many difficulties from doing CAS like- I never took risk in any activity because I was too scared to fail but CAS has taught me that “Failure is not a problem, it’s a learning process” which means that there will be tons and tons of problems thrown at your way but the most important thing is how you tackle those problems and win.

The learning outcomes were really helpful in understanding the purpose and end goal of the experience and each activity. However, there were a few LOs that were difficult to achieve like- Demonstrate engagement with issues of global significance, but I engaged myself into activities were either about working collaboratively or developing areas for growth. Activities that came under Service were only ticking off the sixth learning outcome and I didn’t really indulge myself in Service related activities too much. But when I got to know the importance of this learning outcome I realized the importance of it and conducted my CAS project on it.   

As this core component has helped me a lot, I would 100% recommend doing it because this only helps a person in being a better version of themselves as well as making a better version of the society and the environment that we live in. CAS has helped me immensely in developing myself toward being a responsible, time managing, patient and overall being a good person, Although it has its own difficulties, but the final outcome is seen in myself and is very special.

On 5th September 2015 ,I took part in a event where the students of my grade became teachers for half a day and conducted lessons in the first grade. I am a kind of person who always likes to try new things in life and when I heard about this activity I was very excited because I have never took part in an activity like this before and by enrolling in this activity I will learn something new from it which could help me in future too. I always wanted to be a teacher and teach children and when I got the opportunity to do it I was one of the first person to unroll for. There were total 39 students who participated in this event and we had to conduct class in pairs.

Before the event started me and my partner decided on what activities we will do while conducting the class and also divided the roles between us. We mutually decided on our roles equally so that there will not be someone alone without work. We also made sure that the activities that we were going to do were appropriate for the kids. Before the event started my partner and I made sure that we understand how to behave with the kids so that there will no problems faced during the event. As the event started we went to our class and started with our activities. During the event we made sure that we utilize the resources properly and try not waste them.

The activities that we decided To do

• Introduction(Interaction with kids- Introducing themselves)
• Read aloud
• Musical chairs
• Small indoor games
• Passing the parcel
• Poster making
• Dance

The event was going very good, everyone was having fun and the kids were also participating in the activities. However we started facing problems when my partner could not continue due to some reasons and left the class, so I had to also cover for him and had the handle 20 first grader kids. At that time I was very tensed and got nervous because I had to do my roles as well as my partner’s roles. However as time passed I gained confidence and came up with some new ideas which helped me to manage the class more easily- Like I divided the class in groups where kids would do different activities in different groups so there will be no cluster in the class and everything will be managed systematically and less time consuming. Then the event ended, everybody came out of their allotted classes. I was personally very proud of myself as I learnt many new things, we also made sure that we behave in a certain was as those kids were in the first grade and I was also proud of myself as I passed on my knowledge to the kids which I never did before. I was fully focused in the event and I personally made sure I don’t waste resources and tried not break any school property and especially I tried not to behave inappropriately towards the kids, because I feel kids learn from their elder ones and if I acted inappropriately then they’ll learn from it and will do the same in future to their juniors.         

I learnt a lot of this from this event

• Problem Solving- I developed a new skill that I never knew I had in me which is problem solving. When my partner left the class for some time I was very tensed and was also constantly thinking of solutions but as time passed I came up with a solution which helped a lot.
• Being Patient- One of the biggest task of this event was being patient with those kids, because they were in the first grade and we had to make them understand the activity in their way which sometimes became hard for us.
• Quick Thinking-  When the problem arrived I had to make quick changes in the class and had to make changes in the activities that we were doing.

Overall I learnt many new things from this event and I truly enjoyed this event!!!

 

My friend and I conducted a CAS project where we gave a platform to students where they spent a day with kids with special abilities. We organized an event where students from different schools came and spent a day with special kids.

“All Kids need is a little help, a little hope and somebody who believes in them”- Magic johnson

When I heard the term CAS project, I always wanted to do something new, out of the box and to do something that I have never done before. Well at first I had the same common ideas that almost everyone had when that got to know about CAS project which were organizing a sports event or an arts event. However I wanted to do something new and I wanted to do something which was out of my comfort zone which benefit me as well as to something for the society. Meanwhile when I was figuring out about what type of a CAS project I should do, I came across an article from a newspaper which talked about the difficulties that “special kids” face in today’s world. After reading the article a thought came to my mind that- I didn’t know the problems that these kids face in today’s time until I read the article, so I thought that how many people know about disabled kids and their lives and that is where an idea can to me– “how would it be if my school mates spend a day with these special kids?”

After deciding the idea, my friend and I started to find schools which are for this kind of kids. However this was one of the hardest part of our project as it was very hard for us to find this kind of school because the city that we live in(Surat) doesn’t have that many schools for these kids. After two weeks we found a school called Sree Nandan School, this was a newly opened school which had 30 students with special abilities. We then spent a few weeks planning a half-day activity which included art and crafts, sports, games, learning activities. We regularly worked collaboratively with the teachers of the school, with consistency, and constantly kept updating our participants to ensure that we understood every process correctly as there was a certain way that we had to behave with the kids. We prepared the schedules, and separated the 30 special kids ( ages 5-18 ) in groups according to their intellectual levels.  This planning was a new challenge for us, as neither me nor my friend had organized an event before, and more importantly, an activity of this scale regarding special kids and mental health. One important ethical consideration that we did was to make consent forms for the parents of the special kids, which we sent to them 3 days prior to the event.

After finalising the school we started to advertise our event on social media and in our school. Our school had a very good response towards the event and we had around 30 students just for which had a very good response, as we had almost 30 students how were interested in participating in this event. The activities that we finalized were Puzzle making, Musical Chairs, Cricket, Friendship bracelet making, Poster making and different outdoor games.

Everything was going smoothly, all our activities were planned, we had gotten all the resources, we went to the school 2 days before the event and helped to set up everything, but that same day, our school announced that there was an important compulsory meeting on the same day as our event. We really got Scared as all our participants would be going to this meeting, and we wouldn’t have any participants at all. To find a solution we called the principle of that school to ask if we could postpone our event, however the teacher said that she had already informed the parents so we could not postpone the event. Getting 30 new participants in 24 hours was a big challenge for us, We didn’t know who we would convince, how we would explain everything to them so quickly, however with collaborative work of our volunteers we somehow managed to get a few participants.

The day came where the event was going to happen, we were very anxious about our event, however we were ready as we reached early and with the help of the teachers and volunteers, we were able to quickly prepare everything and set everything up. Before the event started we also held a session where we with the help of the teachers educated the participants about how to behave with the kids, which activities to perform with them and how to help them if they needed it. We sorted the participants in groups as well and told them the work they would be required to do as a team.

Throughout the day we engaged in various activities with the kids. We rotated the groups so that everyone would have a chance to interact with kids of all intellectual levels. Everyone worked collaboratively, whether it was making the acts indulge in craft activities, or whether playing outdoor sports with them. Because of the learning of our school policies, everyone was also very careful not to waste the resources they had like- paper, paints, colors etc. Through efforts together, the entire event went smoothly.

After all the activities were over, we spent some time just talking to the kids and dancing with them. One of the best feedback we got was that one special child who hadn’t talked in 3 weeks had spoken because of the efforts of one of our participants. After the kids went home we held a feedback session for the participants. The response was great as they spoke how this experience had created a difference in their mind about mental health and special kids, what they had liked and what they thought could’ve been done better.

 

After conducting this event I got to learn many things like- Consistency as throughout the planning of the activities, we had to be consistent with our meetings with the school so as to ensure proper execution of the event, getting to know these kids life, improving my quick thinking skills as we had to get new participants for the event just before two day left for the event. Ethical concerns  as we had to prepare consent forms for the parents of the special kids and also inform our participants about what was expected of them. We also had to be careful that we did not waste the resources and how to behave with the kids. Having patients is also what I learnt from this event as we had to be a bit patient while we were conducting the activities. Due to this event my collaboration skills has improved massively as we had to trust each other in certain time like- Getting new participants and during the event.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There were also some areas where I could work upon like- we should always have backup help, and resources, for eg – that day we did not have enough activities and materials to play games with so we could have pre planned accordingly and we also had to get some new participants at the end moment due to the meeting in our school that every student should attend. In these kinds of events, I realized that it is important to take decisions rationally and take the charge, which is something I’d want to work on which would help me in future.

 

 

I took part in a french cooking event where we had to cook a french dish from scratch in groups. This was an event which was organized by students who took French to promote the french culture, who ever wanted to take part in this event had to be in one of the french student’s group and we had to cook a french dish(the dish was decided by the french student) from scratch without any help of our teachers. When I got to know about this event I was one of the first people who wanted to volunteer for the event. Because I want to pursue Hospitality as my career, so taking part in this event gave me some new exposure about cooking(without an expert’s help) and working in a actual kitchen. I also wanted to learn about new cuisines that I have never learnt before. Before the event started I was very excited as I was going to be learning something new in my life and I was going to be cooking with my friends.

As the event started first we collaboratively decided who will do what so that there is less time wastage. We divided the roles equally so that every member in the group would have the same amount of work and no one would feel left out. My role was to cut all the vegetables and cook them. Everything was going smoothly everyone were doing their job perfectly, but after half an hour we found out that the person who bought and brought the ingredients(the french student) forgot to get the main item for the dish! Everyone started panicking as there was just 45 minutes left and without that ingredient we couldn’t finish our dish. Meanwhile we were thinking about what to do and how to finish this dish, then my friend and I came up with a dish which did not include that ingredient and was a french. When the group members heard about the dish everyone sparkled up and started working on it. We completed our dish just in time and everybody loved it. We as a group were very proud of ourselves because we worked organized and quick, as we know each other as a group we functioned nicely as we knew each other’s strengths and weakness. We also tried to save and not waste the resources that we had and that we got from the school for example- the ingredients, water, vessels etc.

I learnt many new thing from this event. I learnt how to cook in a group as I have never done that before, I also learnt how to cook at a proper kitchen. I also developed quick thinking skills- when we found out that the original dish would not be completed everyone started panicking but my friend and I didn’t panic and started to think of a different dish that we could cook. I think that this event gave me an exposure of how to work collaborate in a big real kitchen, this would help me in future as I want to pursue hospitality. To end it was a fun event overall.

Hello, My name is Dhyay Kapadia. I study in Fountainhead school and I am in the second year of IB. I have taken Business management as my HL, English Language as my SL, Psychology as my HL and Hindi B as my HL and Environmental Systems and Societies and Mathematics Studies as my SL. As it is evident from my subject choices, I am more towards humanities and subjects that are more focused towards the society, human mind and human experience. I am not a kind of a guy who keeps talking and likes to shout and debate, rather than talking and debating I like listening. I like to listen and solve problems more than shouting and debating.

In terms of extracurricular activities I enjoy playing sports like Football, Cricket and Kabaddi. I also like to do other things like playing virtual games like FIFA, CS and GTA. Dancing is one of the activities that I would do not matter what the time is, I started dancing when I was 7 years old but never took any professional training. Playing Football and Cooking are the two activities that I am passionate about the most. I have been playing football for years and there hasn’t been any instance where I got bored playing this sport, I have also played many tournaments till now and been selected in the state team twice. The only thing I enjoy after sports is cooking. I have been cooking for a year and I guess I am pretty good at it. However there are some areas in which I would like to improve upon. First would be to improve my physique, I always wanted to be fit but never took the initiative however as I grew I found the importance of having a good strong and healthy body. Second would be to never stop myself from trying new things. I always used to restrain from trying new things but when I tried I got a new experience and learnt new things.

I always wanted to be involved in a world famous restaurant and be the chief chef of that place. I love cooking but never got a chance to work or get the feel of working in that environment, but I have always dreamed of opening up a very unique restaurant that no one has ever seen. I believe that each human was sent to earth for a purpose and I believe that the purpose is to help each other and grow without harming anyone. I also believe that every human has a right to live no matter what their race or gender is till you do not harm anyone. In order accomplish my purpose sometime in my life, I think I need to improve my speaking skills, my commitment and acceptance of people and the society at face value.

I have always been a fan of traveling and to explore the World. I love to travel to different countries and try their foods, I have never been afraid of traveling by myself, and it’s my dream to travel as much as I can till I die. I have always been passionate about cooking and it’s been my dream to be a chef and to open my own restaurant. I want to travel the world,to meet, interact and understand various people around the world and to try different foods and create new dishes and want to help people in need to grow.

 

I took a part in a tree plantation session which was organized by a nature club. We had to be at the venue early morning which was quite difficult for me as it becomes very hard for me to wake up early in the morning. However it was a fun activity as we got muddy and dirty in the rain and planting the tree saplings in the hole which were already dug for us, after planting the tree saplings we needed to shovel the mud around the mud which helped the sapling in balancing. While planting the tree sapling I didn’t litter the black plastic which was originally attached to the sapling and threw away all the black plastic in the trash can to not leave the plastic in the mud which could harm the environment. One of the main reason to take part in this plantation session was that the tree sapling were bird friendly trees(ones with flowers and fruits to provide nectar and food to birds), helps in the survival of many bird species and not only this, these plants also help the environment by increasing the oxygen amount, taking in the carbon dioxide and also helps in reducing the amount of global warming. These plants also helps in the survival of many bird species.

As we all had to work as a team I collaborated with my friends in planting the tree samples which helped me in developing my collaborative skills. Planting the samples together was fun. It was a very good experience for me as we all worked towards an issue with global significance, and I personally believe that if we all come together and do something for the environment, we can do great things in protecting the environment. The rain did slowed us down, made the transportation and the plantation very hard, however our hard work and unity helped us to complete the plantation session .It was a new experience for me as it was a first time I did this type of an activity, it also helped me in developing a new skill- Planting a Tree. I think that this activity did make me go out of my comfort zone as I don’t like getting dirty and muddy, but it was a fun activity overall.

 

 

 

Dancing is one of my hobbies and always been passionate about this activity as it is a stress buster for me. I have always wanted to join dance classes to learn new dance forms, however Hip-Hop is the dance form that I am more passionate about and loved doing it but never got a chance to learn this dance form from an expert. So I joined Dance Classes in my school. We leant 2 dance forms Hip-Hop and Contemporary.   Attending these dance sessions have always made me feel fresh and made me feel more energetic. I managed attending the dance classes for 2 days a week for more than 3 months with my regular school. These dance classes have helped me in many ways like developing new skills and improve my previous dancing skills.

Learning Hip-Hop and a new dance form Contemporary has improved my body posture, also helped me get control over my body while dancing and by attending these dance sessions my body has also become more flexible.  By joining the dance sessions I have started enjoying dance more than ever and now I can feel the intensity of these dance forms. By learning these dance forms I have also improved my stamina because dancing continuously requires a lot of stamina and especially dances like hip-hop need a lot of stamina because it is a very energetic dance.

In theses dance sessions I also learnt a new dance form Contemporary which helped me to get more balance and focused. I didn’t like Contemporary just because I thought it was a very boring dance form. However after learning this dance form I loved it because it helped to get more balance and focused. As this was my first time, learning this dance form was a very big challenge because this dance form is quite hard, but after learning this dance form I felt very energetic and flexible.

We performed our dance in “Kalakriti” which was an Arts event were we students performed on stage in front of our parents. As this was a stage performance in front of such a huge audience it needed true commitment and dedication. Sometimes during the practice we were supposed to come early to the school and we did that. This is where I was committed towards the activity that I was doing. To have a great performance we had to cooperate with each other to have a synchronized dance performance as we had a group of around 13-15 students, and this helped me in interacting with students from different grades which improved my communication skills.

Dancing one of the mediums through which I can express myself when I am out of words and I have become more expressive due to dancing.  Dancing gives me extreme happiness and immense pleasure, every time I dance I get to know a new side of me and dancing has brought grace in my moves and clarity in my steps.

 

 

I was selected for an U-16 Inter-State Gujarat Football Tournament which was held in Olive Green International School Ahmedabad. I was feeling very enthusiastic and was looking forward for the tournament. As it was a long time since we played as a team in a tournament, we lacked coordination. I was self-assured that I would perform to my best ability, however, as football is a team game it is necessary for all the teammates to have practiced together instead of each being   

 

We played our first match against Podar International School who were last year’s champions of this tournament.The pressure was at its peak because our match was the opening match and for the first time I got an opportunity to be the Vice Captain of the team. We(captain, coach and I)  had a difficulty deciding the lineup for the game. The difficulty was mainly because all of us had contradicting views  and consumed a lot of time, however after a long discussion we came up with the starting lineup. I learnt to accept differences and others point of view which i wouldn’t have learnt if i would not have participated in this championship.  

 

We lost the match 3-0, however, I was satisfied with my performance throughout the game.  However I was quite happy with my and the whole team’s performance. We had several attempts at scoring goals but missed by mere inches.  Coordination and communication seemed to be the major reasons for us to lose this match. I think that I gave my 100% in the whole game, I was making many passes and was playing in the whole ground however I feel I was able to execute all the techniques that I had practised effectively before the match, nonetheless, I was able to identify mistakes and where to improve (long passes and heading in defence).  We lost our first match. However, even before the match had begun, we were aware of their strengths and knew they had a greater chance at winning, but still we didn’t show that and planned on showing the best that we had.

 

Through all this, I have experienced playing against a strong team, accepting failure and managing a team. Managing a team isn’t easy when you are also a part of that same team, many issues rise up as this was my first time. This tournament gave me an insight into how you can manage and collaborate equally with teammates.  Also a new thing that i leant was working collaboratively with my team mates. 

 

The Government of India had initiated to build an artificial forest which was named “Janki Van” and we had to plant saplings in that area. We started our journey at 7 in the morning and left the city by school bus. We reached the place of plantation at around 10.30 AM and started to work after a short tour of the whole project.  

It was the first time I was planting saplings and found that it is not as simple as it seems. Planting saplings was quite difficult and I had to get out of my comfort zone to do so. I thought it would be really fun and easy, but no it wasn’t. We had to dig in some places and sow the plant there. We also had to carry the plants from one place to another which was a bit tiring. As I did this activity first time in my life, it was completely uncomfortable for me to plant the saplings. Putting all dirty, wet, soiled saplings under the ground and then cover it with sand was quite unhygienic and awkward for me.

I thought this activity might be boring however it wasn’t. I quite enjoyed it. The reason behind my participation in this activity was to expose myself to a different subject; which was the plantation. My aim of going to the trip was to gain knowledge the way farmers work, what are the processes they use to plant the saplings, do they use pesticides or chemical fertilizers etc. This helped me to explore an agricultural aspect. I learned many things about myself after doing this activity including my strengths and weakness and where I need to improve. The strength I noticed about me was endurance; I worked for 5 hours without much tiredness. As I mentioned earlier,for  this activity i had to step out of my comfort zone which  became a great weakness of mine while doing the activity. However, I felt good, after doing this activity I would like to be more open-minded towards different things and conditions.

Without collaboration, we could not do this activity. Our coordination helped us to plant nearly 100 plants, It was a great pleasure after doing so. I was the person who had never planted one tree in my whole life and suddenly planting these many trees was an honor itself. So therefore YES, this was a successful activity.