Professionals from Design Within Reach judged the students’ projects — awarding first place to Josh Arndt for the re-imagined seesaw. For the project, Arndt bent and welded a salvaged steel plate for the seesaw’s fulcrum and restored a weathered pine beam for the seat.

“The class is all about salvaging and teaching the students to go out and bottom feed,” Herdt said.

She teaches students to find beauty and potential in the discarded objects by investigating their original materials. Her students are inspired to test their creativity while finding new purposes for scraps and waste.

For her project, recent CU graduate Karina White created a modular shelving unit. (Photo courtesy of Stephen Cardinale/CU)

via CU-Boulder ‘Green Tech’ course results in eco-friendly, functional art – Boulder Daily Camera.