Martin Luther High School has featured a wide range of unique courses in its curriculum over the years. The school continues to add intriguing courses, such as Filmmaking, Videography, AP Seminar, and AP Human Geography in the past two years. Two departments are ranked as student favorites; Culinary Courses, which has been around for decades, and Power Technologies, which is new and has room for expansion. Both areas have grown to accommodate the interest in specialty extracurricular study. 

Culinary Courses

The four levels of the culinary classes are Foods 1, Foods 2, Foods 3, and Culinary Careers. Foods 1 is an introductory class, focusing on safety and sanitation, measurements, adjusting recipes, and the different food groups. Foods 2 dives in a bit deeper to safety and sanitation and the food groups, specifically working with active yeast and more advanced types of meats. Foods 2 ends the semester doing a regional food study of the United States, bringing in many recipes representing different parts of the country. Foods 3 is our World Cooking class where students select a country to do an in-depth study on authentic recipes from the area. 

Mrs. Haley (Naber) Raymond (ML Class of 2010) teaches all the culinary courses and says “World cooking has quickly become one of my favorite subjects due to the diverse student body at Martin Luther. We are able to get some really cool, authentic family recipes from students of different backgrounds.” 

Culinary Careers, the highest level, focuses on life outside of high school. They begin the semester with a study of different career options in the culinary field and finish with a detailed study of the ServSafe Food Handler certification. Students learn all the restaurant requirements of safety and sanitation, then take the ServSafe exam. This year, every student passed and received their certificates!

Power Technologies

Power Technologies is a concept that currently contains two classes; Small Engines and Fabrication. In Small Engines, students get an introduction to the world of combustion engines. It starts from a zero level of understanding and works students through mechanical knowledge of function/components so that students can disassemble and reassemble a small engine. Most of the learning focuses on the mechanical construction of small engines, but some electrical components are also visited.

Fabrication is an intro to metalworking, with content coming from sheet metal working, machining, welding, drafting, soldering, and general assembly. It is designed to give students a small taste of the manufacturing life. Students learn essential blueprint reading, manufacturing standards, MIG welding, sheet metal bending, and small machine operation, and incorporate their learnings into their projects.

Mr. Arik Rosengren started teaching at Martin Luther in 2021. He already has big plans for the power technologies department. His goal is to develop both classes into multi-tiered classes in the future. Fabrications 2 is in the works to add machining and welding skills and continue mechanics with small engines by building go-carts. Interest in Small Engines could grow into an Auto Tech class, with students learning the basics of car maintenance by working on a car. “To say things are exciting would be correct! I only hope to excite students and adults into understanding trades, skilled labor, and the occasional dirty job, are useful skills that we still need people to have.”