ZEROTH · AI Ethics and Literacy · Grades 8–12
The zeroth step comes before every first step.
Before the first essay written with a model, the first deepfake they nearly believe, the first job that assumes they can do this — there is ZEROTH. Ten Semesters, sixty Worlds, five years, built to be played rather than assigned.
4 Quests + a Boss per World · 6 Boss Battles a Semester
~18 hours a Semester · Self-paced · Algebra is the only maths gate
What it is
Not a unit. A ladder.
Most AI courses for this age are one unit long. ZEROTH is a sequence: ten Semesters that assume each other, running from what a language model actually is to building and judging systems that act on their own.
Five strands run the whole length — how the machines work, how to use them, what they cost other people, the code, and the small amount of maths that carries real weight. Every Semester carries at least one ethics World, because judgment has to arrive at the same speed as capability.
The maths gate
Basic algebra, and nothing above it. Hard ideas are welcome; hard arithmetic is not. Derivatives arrive as slope, gradient descent as rolling downhill, vectors as arrows. No calculus is ever required to clear a Boss.
The economy
Credits are real currency. You set what they buy.
Drag it. This is usually the moment a parent gets it: the course becomes how the screen time is earned.
Experience points are separate and are never spent — they drive a ten-rank ladder that runs the length of all ten Semesters and ends at Operator Prime. The ledger is append-only and cannot be reset by a reinstall: a learner who banks points in year one still has them in year five.
Semester 1 · Contact · available now
Six Worlds. The first one is free.
Worlds 2 to 6 stay locked until the previous Boss falls. That gate is the game.
World 1 · Free
The Machine Mind
What a model is actually doing when it answers you — and why that makes it confident and wrong at the same time.
World 2 · Promptsmith
The Forge
Prompting as engineering: constraints, examples, iteration, and knowing when the tool is the wrong tool.
World 3 · Truth Keeper
Honest Machines
Truth, sources and who answers for it. What to do when you cannot verify, and who gets hurt if you are wrong.
World 4 · Scribe
The Scriptorium
Documents that hold up: structure, citation, and writing something another person can act on.
World 5 · Sound Forger
The Sound Foundry
Generated audio and synthetic voice — how it is made, what it is good for, and what it can be used to fake.
World 6 · Vision Director
The Vision Engine
Generated image and video, and the disclosure habits that go with publishing any of it.
Clear the Semester 1 Boss and the learner takes the title AI OPERATOR.
The shape of a World
Four Quests, then a Boss.
Every World in every Semester is built the same way, so a learner never has to relearn the format. Roughly thirty minutes a block.
01
The Briefing
The reading, converted to a formatted document with one page per Quest.
Attached in Classroom
02
Quests 1–4
Hands-on work, turned in for experience points and credits.
500 XP each
03
The Boss
Five questions. Four mark themselves; the fifth is written and you read it.
1,000 XP · 1,250 flawless
04
The Retry
A different question bank on the same objectives — a re-sit is never the same paper twice.
750 XP
The ladder
Ten Semesters, in order, over five years.
S1 · Contact
AI Operator
Available
S2 · Groundwork
Field Operator
In production
S3 · Data
Data Operator
Planned
S4 · Search
Pathfinder
Planned
S5 · Patterns
Pattern Operator
Planned
S6 · Descent
Network Operator
Planned
S7 · Vision
Vision Operator
Planned
S8 · Language
Language Operator
Planned
S9 · Agents
Agent Architect
Planned
S10 · Launch
Overseer
Planned
Price
Buy a Semester. Own it.
One payment, no renewal, no account with us. Sold through Teachers Pay Teachers, which handles licensing and issues a receipt a co-op or ESA administrator will accept.
World 1
Free
The Machine Mind, complete — reading, four Quests and the Boss.
Enough to know whether the format fits your learner. No card, no account.
Get World 1
Semester 1 · Contact · Family license
$30
Founding price
The whole Semester, installed into your own Classroom. One household or one adult with up to six learners.
Six Worlds · 24 Quests · 6 Boss Battles · Installer, setup guide, Game Manual and parent guide · ~18 hours of work
Buy Semester 1
Next · Semester 2 · Groundwork
$30
When it ships. Field Operator: prompt architecture, what a model remembers about you, and first real code.
In production. Release notes only — roughly one email a Semester.
Join the list
$30 is a founding price and will rise. Teaching more than six? The Classroom license is $50 a Semester for up to 30 learners; above that, write to us. Ten Semesters at $30 is $300 over five years; released Semesters bundle at a round discount, and we never sell a Semester that has not shipped.
Parents ask
Fair questions, straight answers.
Do you see my child’s work?
No. We never see your child’s work or data. It lives in your own Google account. The course builds itself inside your Classroom and Drive; there is no account with us, no login, and nothing sent back to us.
Do I need to buy AI subscriptions?
No. Every tool the course uses has a free tier that covers the work and runs in a browser, Chromebooks included.
Every learner needs their own Google account, aged 13 or over.
That floor is Google’s, not ours. Classroom will not accept a supervised child account, so a learner under 13 cannot be enrolled at all. Check this before you promise anybody a place.
Will this teach my kid to cheat?
The opposite. World 3 is entirely about verification and accountability, and World 4 draws the line between a model as a coach and a model as a ghostwriter. The writing method keeps every word theirs.
How much of my time does it take?
One evening to install, then you publish the next World when a Boss falls, pay out the credits, and mark one written answer per Boss. You do not have to know the material.
Google will warn you the installer is not verified.
It is your own script, running in your own account, published nowhere. The warning is Google telling you the truth: nobody has reviewed it. The setup guide walks through the exact screen.
Why “ZEROTH”?
In maths and computing the zeroth element comes before the first. This is the course that comes before everything else they will ever do with these systems.
Is it accredited?
No, and it awards no credit. ZEROTH is preparation: it is written against the published entry requirements of college-level AI coursework so a learner arrives able to keep up. It does not replace that coursework.
Semester 2 · Groundwork
Be told when the next one lands.
Release notes only. Roughly one email a Semester.
Notify me
ZEROTH
The zeroth step, before every first. Published by Levitation Education.
ZEROTH and the Operator turtle are marks of Levitation Automation. Independent curriculum. Not affiliated with or endorsed by Google or any other tool provider named in the course. Not accredited; awards no credit.
© 2026 Levitation Automation.