REPORT • March 2026 • by Alexandra Forgerson, Carol Colaninno, Rachel M. Ruggirello, and Doug Chalker
The WashU Advancing Secondary Science Education through Tetrahymena (ASSET) program is a long-standing science education program that was initially developed at Cornell University and transferred to WashU in 2023. Funded through the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Science Education Partnership Award (SEPA), the ASSET program enhances STEM education by providing research-based, inquiry-driven learning experiences for K-12 students. All ASSET learning experiences feature a living model organism, Tetrahymena, a single-celled protozoan that is safe, easy to grow and extensively studied by scientists to gain new understanding of many biological processes and functions with the hope that data are generalizable to other organisms and systems such as human health, biology, and ecosystems.