Students spend much time in doing their physics homework. Whether this effort results in deep learning depends on the quality of the mere homework. Therefore, we designed a minds-on simulation-based approach to physics homework and conducted a pretest-posttest quasi-experiment to compare its effectiveness to the effectiveness of traditional homework. Our student sample consisted of 39 first year high-school students from Bosnia and Herzegovina. In two school hours, all students received the same lectures about gas laws. Next, the experimental group students solved simulation-based homework in which their planning of actions, execution of actions and self-reflection was supported by a carefully prepared worksheet and survey. The traditional group's homework consisted of three textbook problems and covered the same content, which is gas laws. Through analysis of covariance it was shown that the minds-on simulation-based homework was significantly more effective in developing students' understanding of gas laws than traditional homework. The experimental group students perceived the simulation-based homework as interesting, challenging and useful.