Regarding the role of science fairs in spreading misconceptions
about the nature of science:
1) There is no doubt that bad things are going on.
Google turns up a lot of seemingly-authoritative
science-fair sites that say truly appalling things
about "the" scientific method.
2) On the other hand, we should be careful not to
tar all science fairs with the same brush.
I checked with a friend who has for years helped
organize one of the regional science fairs. He
reports that neither the national body (ISEF) nor
his regional organization has any rules or anything
else to say about scientific method(s).
Of course this is a highly-biassed sample -- the
guy I asked is a highly-accomplished professional
research scientist, who has thought deeply about the
nature of science, so you might expect _his_ region
to be trouble-free, no matter what is going on in
other regions.
But it serves as an existence proof: It is at least
possible to have a regional fair without any horsefeathers
about "the" scientific method.