Data projects for charities · Maths CAS idea
Optimise a volunteer rota
CreativityServiceProject-ready
Help a charity or club build a fairer, easier rota for its volunteers, using constraints and a simple scheduling method you design.
Where the maths comes in
Constraints, logic and simple optimisation (graph colouring or matching ideas, or a spreadsheet solver).
Which CAS strand it fits
- Creativity: The arts, and other experiences that involve creative thinking.
- 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
- Learn how the rota works now and what goes wrong.
- List the constraints with the organiser.
- Build and test a scheduling method with made-up names.
- Hand it over with instructions and check it is used.
This can grow into a CAS project if your CAS coordinator agrees: see planning a maths CAS project.
How to evidence it
- Notes on the problem and constraints
- Versions of your method
- Organiser's 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.
- Which constraint was hardest to satisfy, and what trade-off did you make?
- How did you make the rota fair, and fair to whom?
- What did you learn from the people who use it?
Learning outcomes this often gives a chance to show
- Challenge and new skills. What could you not do at the start that you can do now? Which moment felt most uncomfortable, and what did you do next?
- Ethics. What choice in this experience had a right and a wrong way to do it? Whose interests did you have to protect (privacy, safety, fairness), and how?
- Initiative and planning. What did you plan, and what did you have to change once you started? Who did you need to ask for permission or help, and how did you go about it?
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 made-up names while building; the organisation handles real volunteers' details.
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.