Sorry, but if your math skills prove inadequate to manage Gaussian statistics, STEM is (and IMO should be) pretty much closed to you.
Totally fly-by post coming on my part here... no time to read all the links and replies, but just wanted to add, fwiw, yes, I agree that *understanding Gaussian statistics is important* (as well as within the reach of most people, whether or not they like math)... actually *computing* Gaussian statistics is done by calculators and computers and as a working scientist, I can tell you that it's the understanding of most math that counts once you're in the working world, not the ability to quickly spout out math "facts"
FWIW, I do find it useful that I can quickly add/subtract/multiply etc - but I find that useful in the everyday world - at the grocery store, calculating a tip, etc. Being slow at those types of drill skills would not have limited me as a scientist at all.
I'll also throw it out there - there are a few scientific fields where you really don't deal with statistics all that much either. And quite a few of the scientists I know who didn't study much math in college beyond dif-eq (because it wasn't needed for their field), did find later on that they needed some.. and they picked it up while they were working, usually through situation-specific instruction.
No guarantees that any of that makes sense - as I said, I am reading and posting quickly at the moment!
polarbear
ps - for any parents who are worried about the age their kids became proficient at addition/subtract/mulitplication facts - fwiw, none of my kids picked them up quickly or at a young age. My EG ds13 didn't really have them down until 5th grade, and he's really *really* good at both science and math. My dd9 picked them up quickly than my other two, but that's because she went to a drill-and-kill school that practically sucked the love of math out of her (she's changing schools year, partly because of the constant repetition of math fact calculations over spending time learning actual, um, math). My dd11 did not pick them up quickly, still hesitates on some calculations, and quite honestly, is horribly slow to understand some of the basic math concepts also. But she's still a happy kid, and she also still loves science
I see the largest hurdle for her, if she wants to pursue a career in science is getting into a good college science program as a freshman without having gone through advanced track math in high school as many of the other kids applying for admission will have. There *are* science fields that have people in them who will readily admit they don't like math and aren't good at it and there are science fields whose college curriculum doesn't include higher-level math beyond calculus and basic stats - I went through college (an all-STEM school) with quite a few of those folks in one particular field that I recall (our school had a limited number of study fields to choose from). I can see my math-hating dd enjoying and being successful in that field
Best wishes,
polarbear
