Course-based undergraduate research experiences (CUREs) are a form of teaching that incorporates the use of the scientific method, teamwork, and repetition in solving relevant problems, providing students with the opportunity to have research experiences in the early semesters of their careers and cultivate research competencies such as scientific thinking skills. These experiences have been shown to promote interest and persistence in science, increase self-efficacy in research skills, help identify themselves as scientists, and improve graduation rates in STEM fields. The objective of the present study was to implement a pilot CURE in a thermodynamics course. The experience was designed for 22 sophomores registered in Sustainable Development Engineering at a university in Mexico. A previously validated survey by Hanauer et al. was adapted to measure persistence in science. The most favored dimensions were project ownership, self-efficacy, and scientific values, whereas science identity and networking still had some areas of opportunity. The participants were satisfied, amazed, and confident to perform research. However, they did not develop a remarkable sense of belonging or identity with the scientific community. A longitudinal study will be conducted by implementing CURE in more engineering subjects through the curricula of the same undergraduates to promote positive perceptions of scientific research and study whether this influences their future graduate studies.