Conant students experience farm life in the 1880s

For students at James B. Conant High School, learning about the original pioneers of Schaumburg Township in the 1880s became an interactive experience at several original farm sites.

Approximately 150 students in the Advanced Placement Human Geography class participated in the Volkening Farm and Homestead’s (Schaumburg Park District) interactive program that focuses on land use practices associated with life on a subsistence farm in Schaumburg Township in the mid-1880s.

“The partnership between the Conant High School Social Studies Department and the Volkening Farm and Homestead has successfully provided students with a hands-on experience that helps their understanding of land use and how it changes over time,” said Social Studies Department Chair John Braglia.

Students participated in several activities that gave them firsthand experience of how the land was used in the 1880s.

The first part of the program involved students with seven individual living history presentations of various agricultural practices — haying, dunging, grain processing, livestock maintenance, food ways, woodlot conservation and architecture. Each activity took place on real farm sites.

The program included a walking presentation given by David Brooks of the Spring Valley Nature Center. Brooks explained the characteristics of the physical environment in Schaumburg Township that German immigrant farmers experienced when they first arrived in the early 1800s.