Newmill Primary School

The Isabella’s Footsteps Project

On the project we learnt all about sea creatures and the different species of crustaceans like Copepods and Sea slaters. Catherine (Booth) told us the history of Isabella, that she grew up in Keith and went to Japan and saw the emperor.

We learnt how to write songs and sing them,  do the acting and recite the script.

• I remember the lobsters and I liked them
• I liked the copepods
• I liked seeing all the photos of the crustaceans
• It was great because I got to learn things I did not know before
• It was really cool

The teachers thought it was lovely to see that you CAN mix music and science!

Composition

Title: “A Crustacean Megasong” 
Scientists: DR ISABELLA GORDON
Composers: Primary 3-5, Newmill Primary School
Words by: the composers
Written in: 2025
For: Voices and instruments
Additional works: “Isabella’s Footsteps” by Frances M Lynch
Performed by: the composers with Frances M Lynch, piano, Herbie Clarke, guitar, and Coralie Usmani, Viola
Recorded: 2nd October 2025
Film by: Herbie Clarke with drawings by the composers

The children worked with a team of musicians from Electric Voice Theatre, Science Historian Catherine Booth and Scientist Miranda Lowe C.B.E. The resulting Megasong tells the story of Isabella Gordon’s life and a fantastical tale of 3 species she studied – Hermit crabs, Copepods, and Sea slaters.

We wrote about Hermit crabs, Pagarus benhardus.
We liked when we made the funny voices when we popped out of our shells.

We wrote about Copepods, Calanus finmarchicus.
Our verse in the song was funny

We wrote about Sea Slaters, Ligia oceanica.
We really liked when we had to walk in front of the whole stage to shake the copepods out of the bottle and when we had to take the plastic cups off the Hermit crabs heads.
I liked I got eaten by an otter, and I liked when I fell into the sea.

The main story is book-ended by a song written by Frances and the children together which tells the story of Isabella Gordon.  The full text of the Megasong appears on the video.

We liked the songs and the viola

I liked  

• being in a group with my friends
• me and my group writing it
• singing together with my group
• the singing
• the Isabella’s footsteps song
• It was funny when we all went “bong bong” for Big Ben

Education

Half of us play musical instruments like guitar, ukulele, recorder and drums, and some of us sing in choirs.

This year in our classroom for STEM we did bridge building. We have also had an Aquarium visit and studied topics about our bodies and underwater animals

Occupations

Only one of us is sure they want to be a scientist but some of us are still thinking about it. We’re very musical of course, some want to be singers, rappers or composers when we grow up.  The rest want to be artists or footballers, hairdressers, police officers, farmers, pilots or cabin crew, dog trainers, Youtubers, engineers or sell ice-cream or pizza. 

Musical Highlights

One of us is really, really good at playing guitar. Many of us have performed in shows.

Did You Know?

• Sea slaters eat from the opposite end from us and excrete from their mouths
• Crustaceans are animals in the ocean with no back bone
• Sea slaters are not allowed to go outside as they would get eaten by birds
• Sea slaters have hollow bones and their shells are too
• Miranda told us there are 67,000 crusteaceans in the world
• Miranda works in the same lab as Isabella

An Inspiring Woman

• Isabella Gordon because she came from Keith
• Miranda because she studies crabs and she followed in Isabella’s footsteps; she has the same job.

Links