feat(content): author the ROOT_ V1 orientation module and three practice-bank intro lessons

- root-01-m00-welcome-to-root: program overview + Lab-lifecycle orientation (disposable Labs, permanent progress, hints, reset/recreate, help-requests). - One short intro-lesson activity for each of the three bare practice-bank modules (root-06-m01, root-07-m01, root-10-m02), explaining what the bank is and why it has no per-scenario teaching of its own — the minimum real authoring needed for genuine self-paced readiness without reclassifying them optional (see the curriculum migrations). Co-Authored-By: Claude Sonnet 5 <[email protected]>
2026-08-26 18:33:09 -05:00
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+# Welcome to ROOT_
+
+ROOT_ is RootNode Academy's path from "I can use a computer" to "I can run and repair real
+infrastructure." It's built for anyone roughly high-school age and up — including college
+students, career changers, help-desk technicians, junior sysadmins, and working developers who
+want to move into DevOps, cloud, or platform engineering. There's no strict age cutoff: what
+matters is whether you're ready for the material, not how old you are.
+
+## Where ROOT_ goes
+
+```
+ROOT 01  Computing & Linux Foundations
+ROOT 02  Linux Administration & Networking
+ROOT 03  Git & Collaborative Development
+ROOT 04  Containers & Docker
+ROOT 05  Kubernetes Foundations
+ROOT 06  Kubernetes Application Workloads
+ROOT 07  Kubernetes Networking & Configuration
+ROOT 09  Kubernetes Security
+ROOT 10  Kubernetes Troubleshooting & Observability
+ROOT 12  RootNode Real Ops
+CAPSTONE Operate and Recover a Production-Like Environment
+```
+
+Each course builds on real skill from the one before it — you won't be asked to use a tool or
+concept that a previous course didn't already teach you. By the end, you'll have operated a real
+Kubernetes cluster, diagnosed and fixed real incidents, and demonstrated it in a hands-on
+capstone — not answered multiple-choice questions about it.
+
+## How you'll actually learn
+
+Every module follows the same rhythm:
+
+**Learn → Practice → Lab → Troubleshoot → Validate**
+
+- **Learn** — a short lesson introduces one real concept, plainly, with no unexplained jargon.
+- **Practice** — a demonstration or guided exercise lets you see the concept applied before
+  you're on your own with it.
+- **Lab** — you do the real thing yourself, in your own disposable Lab environment: a real
+  Linux shell, real Git, real Docker, and (from ROOT 05 onward) a real Kubernetes cluster.
+- **Troubleshoot** — Labs are built to sometimes not go as planned on the first try, on purpose.
+  Figuring out why something didn't work is as much the skill as doing it right the first time.
+- **Validate** — your Lab checks its own result. You'll know immediately whether you actually
+  solved it, not just whether you think you did.
+
+## Self-paced or instructor-led
+
+ROOT_ is built to work either way. If you're going through it on your own, every module gives you
+everything you need without a teacher in the room. If you're in an instructor-led class or camp,
+your instructor can see your progress, help when you're stuck, and add their own pacing and
+discussion on top of the same real curriculum — nothing about the platform changes between the
+two, only who else is watching your progress.
+
+## Assessments and the Capstone
+
+A few courses end in a short formal assessment — a handful of real, timed Lab tasks (not a
+multiple-choice quiz) that check you can actually do what the course taught, not just recognize
+the right answer. The program ends with the **Capstone**: no more new teaching, just a
+production-like environment with real incidents to find and fix, the same way you would on the
+job.
+
+## Your progress is permanent — your Lab is not
+
+One thing to know before you start: the Lab environment you work in is disposable and can be
+recreated at any time. Your academic progress is not. The next module covers exactly what that
+means and why it's nothing to worry about.
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+# Your Disposable Lab
+
+Every hands-on Lab in ROOT_ gives you a real, isolated environment — a real Linux shell from
+ROOT 01 onward, real Git and Docker from ROOT 03-04, and a real Kubernetes cluster from ROOT 05
+onward. It's yours alone while you're working in it. Here's what you need to know before your
+first one.
+
+## Disposable means disposable
+
+Your Lab environment can be recreated at any time — when you start a new Lab, when an
+instructor resets a classroom session, or if the environment needs to be refreshed. When that
+happens, **anything that only exists inside the Lab disappears**: files you created in the
+terminal, a local Git repository you initialized, a Docker container or image you built, a
+Kubernetes object you deployed. None of that is backed up, and none of it needs to be — it was
+never the point.
+
+## Your academic progress is not disposable
+
+What IS permanent, stored on RootNode's servers the moment you earn it: which lessons you've
+read, which Labs you've completed, your assessment results, and your position in the course
+sequence. Recreating your Lab never erases any of that. You can lose a Lab entirely and pick up
+exactly where you left off in the course.
+
+## How you know you actually solved it
+
+Every Lab task validates itself — when you think you're done, you run the check and get a real
+pass/fail answer immediately, based on the real state of your environment, not on your own
+guess. If it fails, that's useful information, not a penalty: it's telling you specifically what
+isn't right yet.
+
+## If you get stuck
+
+Most Labs have hints available, revealed one at a time so you can try the next step yourself
+before seeing more. Using a hint doesn't cost you anything or affect your result — it's there to
+keep you moving, not to be avoided on principle. A formal, timed assessment may disable hints;
+if so, the assessment will tell you plainly before you start.
+
+If a Lab's environment itself seems broken rather than the task being hard (a command that
+should work doesn't, the environment won't start), use **Reset Scenario & Environment** to tear
+down and rebuild it cleanly rather than fighting a broken environment.
+
+## If you're in an instructor-led session
+
+Your instructor can see your progress in real time and gets notified the moment you use **Need
+Help** — no need to wait to be noticed. Use it for anything: a Lab that seems broken, a concept
+that didn't click, or just wanting a second pair of eyes before you second-guess a working
+solution.
+
+## Returning to the course
+
+When you're done with a Lab — pass or still stuck — you can always return to the course view and
+come back to it later. Nothing about leaving a Lab mid-task loses your place.
+
+You're ready. Let's start with how a computer actually runs the software you're about to spend
+this program controlling.
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+# Knowledge Check: Welcome to ROOT_
+
+---
+
+**1. If your Lab environment is recreated, what happens to a file you saved inside it, and
+what happens to your completed Labs so far?**
+
+*Answer:* The file disappears — nothing inside the Lab persists across a recreation. Your
+completed Labs and course progress are unaffected — those are stored on RootNode's servers, not
+in the Lab, and survive regardless of what happens to any Lab environment.
+
+**2. A Lab task fails your validation check. What should that tell you?**
+
+*Answer:* Specifically what isn't correct yet, based on the real current state of your
+environment — it's diagnostic information to act on, not a penalty.
+
+**3. Name one thing to try before assuming a Lab is "just broken."**
+
+*Answer:* Check the available hints (revealed one at a time), and if the environment itself
+genuinely seems broken rather than the task being hard, use Reset Scenario & Environment to
+rebuild it cleanly.
+
+---
+
+## Instructor Notes
+
+**Facilitation:** This is a good moment to actually demonstrate a Lab reset live if you have
+time — students remember "I saw it happen and nothing bad occurred" far better than being told
+it's safe.
+
+**Approximate timing:** 3 minutes.