New Years 3D Spinning Card Craft - STEM Project for New Years

As 2020 draws to a close I wanted to provide a special gift to all of our STEAM Powered Family readers. Our Snowflake Spinning Card Craft was such a massive success, I wanted to provide one for New Years too. I think we are all ready to send 2020 spinning right out that door!

NEW YEARS STEM CARD CRAFT PROJECT

What you will discover in this article!

So many of us are not able to spend time with our loved ones this holiday season. Sending them one of these special, hand crafted cards is a wonderful way to stay connected, share some love and practice some of those important engineering skills!

Check out this fun video!

Supplies

For this project all you need is:

Cardstock (and a colour printer to print on cardstock)
Small, sharp scissors
Tape
glue/glue stick
Clear or white thread (like fishing line)
Ruler

Plus you will need the template which is free for all STEAM Powered Family mailing list members. Simply enter your email to get the files now.

Directions

Start by printing and cutting

Print both sheets on cardstock.

Cut sheet 1 in half, along the dotted line.

Fold and crease the bottom part of the sheet in half, forming the card base.

Cut out the rectangle portion from the top of the sheet. Fold and crease it in half, then fold (and crease) each end toward the middle crease, forming a W shape. (see photo) This piece will go inside of the card.

Next, carefully cut the middle circle out of the inner card, along the dotted line.

Cut out both New Year’s Balls and other decorations from the second sheet.

Cut an 8” length of thread.

Time to assemble

Coat the back side of one of the balls with glue.

Place the thread in the middle of a ball, evenly adhering it to the very middle. Place the other ball exactly on top of it. Press together. (Add glitter, if desired.)

Flip the inner card over, with the wrong side facing up.

Position the New Year’s Ball in the very center of the cut out circle.

Place the length of each end of the thread along the middle crease of the back side of the inner card. Tape this thread down inside the crease, using scotch tape. Trim any extra thread and/or tape.

Using a ruler, measure 1″ to 1.25″ from each outer edge of the card base. Mark this point lightly with a pencil.

Using the mark as a guide, position the inner card onto the inside of the card base, 1″ to 1.25″ from each side. Erase the pencil marks.

Glue the outer sections of it down. Leave the inner portion (with spinning ball) free of glue.

Cut out the remaining decorations and add them to your card wherever you like. Just be sure they do not get in the way of any of the folded creases.

Your card is now finished!

Making the Ball Spin!

To get the ball to spin, carefully twist it several times in one direction before closing the card. When you open it, the magic will happen!

STEM Lessons

This New Years project is a great way to practice some STEM Skills.

Kids are engineering the 3D card. It involves intricate steps that must be done correctly to ensure the final project works perfectly. One key part of the engineering process is aligning the structure and anchors of the fishing line, plus ensuring it is well secured and straight. Kids will be challenged to use their critical thinking and problem solving skills with this project.

Next we have some really fun physics at work that makes our ball spin. As we mentioned above you will need to wind up the New Years Ball. This will create what is known as Potential Energy. The ball is just waiting to spin, but it can’t because the energy is being held by the closed card. Once the card is opened, the ball is freed and the potential energy transforms to kinetic energy and the ball spins.

Happy New Years!