Community statistics · Maths CAS idea
Records and planning for a community garden
ActivityServiceProject-ready
Volunteer at a community garden doing the physical work, and help plan bed layouts and record yields to improve next season.
Where the maths comes in
Area, spacing, yield per square metre and simple planning.
Which CAS strand it fits
- Activity: Physical exertion that contributes to a healthy lifestyle.
- Service: Unpaid, voluntary work with others that also has a learning benefit for you.
Your CAS coordinator decides how an experience counts at your school. Strand summaries are provisional (our words, being checked).
How to run it
- Join an existing garden and ask how you can help.
- Do regular physical work alongside the volunteers.
- Set up a simple yield and planting record.
- Share a summary and plan with the group at season's end.
This can grow into a CAS project if your CAS coordinator agrees: see planning a maths CAS project.
How to evidence it
- Attendance log
- Planting plans and yield records
- Group feedback
Date everything and keep it in your school's CAS portfolio as you go. More on what counts as evidence.
Reflection prompts
Questions to think about, not answers to copy. Write your reflections in your own words, in whatever form your school accepts.
- What did the physical work teach you that planning did not?
- How did the group decide what to grow?
- What did you learn about food in your community?
Learning outcomes this often gives a chance to show
- Commitment and perseverance. When did you feel like stopping, and what kept you going? What does your record of sessions or meetings show about how regularly you took part?
- Collaboration. What did someone else bring that you could not have done alone? Describe a disagreement or a mix-up in the team. How was it resolved?
- Global significance. How does the local need you worked on connect to a wider issue? What did you learn about that issue that you did not know before?
Whether you meet an outcome depends on what you actually do and reflect on, not on the idea. Outcome labels are our short summaries, being checked.
Safety and ethics
- Use tools safely as shown by the organisers; wear gloves; follow the garden's rules.
Agree every plan with your CAS coordinator first. Safety and ethics for maths CAS.
Need the statistics? The statistics guide (written for the IA) explains tests and charts step by step. Keep CAS and your IA separate.