Keyword: «teaching mathematics in grades 7-9»

Currently, the basic education system is undergoing transformations related to the establishment of guidelines for the personal development of students and relevant competences, the so-called «soft skills». At the same time, one of the complex tasks of school mathematical education is the integrated formation of meta-subject skills and creativity in school students. The analysis of research on this problem in domestic and foreign literature and educational practice allows us to reveal diverse techniques and methods for developing students' creativity. However, the issue of using the potential of the digital educational environment remains relevant, which allows us to enhance the effectiveness of this process, taking into account the characteristics of the modern generation of adolescents. The purpose of the article is to present a methodology for developing and evaluating students' creativity based on themed web quests in the process of mathematical training in grades 7-9. A set of scientific methods was used to achieve this goal. The theoretical basis of the study consisted of: analysis and generalization of scientific, pedagogical and methodological literature in order to determine the main provisions of the studied problem; systematization of the information received; modeling. Empirical methods included questioning of students for self-assessment of meta-subject and creative skills; analysis and evaluation of students' creative products; primary static data processing, their graphical representation (in the form of diagrams) and comparative analysis. Personality-oriented and problem-based approaches were chosen as the leading methodological approaches in the design of themed web quests, and gamification technology was chosen as the leading educational technology. Based on the selected approaches, the characteristics of the original author's web quests were identified: integration of personal and game context; priority of creative development; maximum visualization; thematic focus; problem-based part of the tasks; digitalization of content; creation of quest plots based on the children's film and game industry. To illustrate the characteristic features of the content of the designed web quests, the author gives examples of geometry quest tasks for 7th grade students created using the Google Sites website builder. A methodology for evaluating the creative component of the quest results (creative product) is presented; criteria and indicators for determining the level of «small» creativity of a student («Follower", «Initiator", «Strategist") are defined. To illustrate the author's methodology, the results of testing a web quest for 8th grade students on the topic «Square» are presented, and a primary statistical analysis is shown to assess the creativity of students.