Nov. 14-15 are a couple of days for moms, dads and daughters to mark on their calendars.

The Parent-Daughter Engineering Day will be hosted by the College of Applied Science and Technology in the Shepherd Union. This is the fifth year that the event is being held at Weber State University, and the event has grown so much that organizers split it into two sessions.

Parents and daughters, even those with no engineering background, are invited to come for an engineering experience for the day. Parent-Daughter Engineering Day is designed to spark the interest of girls in sixth through ninth grades and get them thinking like engineers, organizers say.

In previous years, participants have built catapults, prosthetic hands and electric yo-yos. This year’s experience will involve building a hover craft and a hydraulic crane.

Information about the event can be found on the Weber State University website.

The girls and their parents will be involved in activities that will be both fun and challenging, organizers say.

Julie Snowball, director of the Career and Technical Education Office on the the Davis campus, which helps fund the event, said that the event is designed to call attention to engineering career paths for young men and women.

But especially for young women, she said, “There seems to be a dominant with the male population that go into those areas. But there are so many opportunities, I just don’t think the females realize it.”

Without the event, engineering could be an opportunity they may have not found, Snowball said.

The event is something Snowball feels proud of.

“It shows that Weber State cares about all students. And we are one of the STEM leaders in the state,” she said.

Dana Dellinger, the outreach and recruiting coordinator for the College of Applied Science and Technology, is running the event this year.

Dellinger says it is a great community event that especially reaches out to parents.

“As much as it is to encourage the girls, it is supposed to encourage the parents in opening up their minds to engineering,” Dellinger said.

Weber State University students who are a part of the Society for Women Engineers will be volunteering for the event, but Dellinger says more volunteers are always welcome to promote the science programs at Weber State.

“We really emphasize women to volunteer, so that these junior high girls can see themselves here at Weber,” she said.

To register for the event, go to the Parent-Daughter Engineering Day page .