Model organisms can play an important role in K–12 science education. Engaging students in hands-on activities featuring real organisms adds a dimension of interest and excitement that cannot be obtained with other teaching methods, and encourages students to creatively explore scientific ideas and concepts. Here we present a successful educational outreach program that utilizes the resources of the national Tetrahymena Stock Center to foster the use of a safe, easy-to-grow protozoan for hands-on inquiry-based educational activities in K-12 classrooms. It is our hope that sharing our approach for supporting educational use of a model organism may provide useful insight and information to others interested in increasing the use of model organisms in K-12 classrooms. ASSET (Advancing Secondary Science Education through Tetrahymena), an NIH SEPA funded program at Cornell University, has worked with teachers and students to develop inquiry-based K-12 biology curricula that feature hands-on manipulation of live Tetrahymena cells, and that are ideal for demonstrating many of the basic principles of biology in novel and engaging ways. Teachers and student input during curriculum development insures that the self-contained modules are grade appropriate and user friendly, and rigorous testing and evaluation confirm that the educational content increases student understanding of fundamental biological concepts and knowledge of the scientific method. Grade appropriate cross-curricula activities engaging students in the inter-relatedness of science and society are used to make science more relevant to real life issues and to increase overall student interest in science. A unique independent high school research program is also being developed to provide students, especially at low-resource schools, with the means of carrying out a small independent research project in their classroom. All ASSET modules contain comprehensive teacher guides, detailed student protocols, unit-related questions, and answer keys. Guides to relevant literature are also provided, with links to additional source material available on the website. To support the use of ASSET modules at schools serving minority and low-income students, the basic materials needed to carry out the experimental protocols, including live cells and growth media, are available without charge using an on-line request system. In addition, an equipment lending library provides basic equipment for free short-term loan to under-resourced schools to insure equitable access to ASSET curricula. ASSET offers opportunities for collaborative educational outreach to interested Tetrahymena researchers around the country, and provides a model for the integration of model organism stock center resources with K – 12 educational outreach.