The scientific explanation is the essential content of natural science museum exhibitions and educational activities. Natural science museums have the advantage of scientific explanations because of their rich collections. However, some problems exist in museums, such as ambiguous educational objectives, incomplete explanation logic, and single point of view. This paper takes the contextual model of learning as the theoretical framework and combines the conceptual metaphor theory of the cognitive science field and the explanatory model in the philosophy of science. Then, this paper puts forward solutions for the three levels of personal context, physical context, and sociocultural context respectively. First, museums need to investigate the audience's basic cognition, reasoning mode, and re-understanding framework to analyze the needs of target communities. Second, conceptual metaphor and explanatory model are suggested to establish the framework of basic elements to optimize the process of scientific explanation in order to build a complete explanatory chain. Third, museums need to communicate with the audience through dialogue and common values. Finally, a closed-loop structure of scientific explanation model and efficiency evaluation method are illustrated, which promotes the museums to become an essential place to transmit scientific knowledge and publicize scientific spirit.

natural science museum  /  scientific explanation  /  contextual model of learning  /  conceptual metaphor  /  explanatory model