Hello M Johnson,
Now first as you have said this is a school project I will expect you show the work you are doing in this thread, myself and other members may help but remember as you will be graded for this project most of the work should be done BY YOU.
Now as you have mentioned you want to use a pic micro have you sorted out which one you want to use and what type of code are you/we going to program in. Personally I use Oshonsoft Basic which has an easy learning curve and a simulator so the code can fully tested on a computer before building the hardware. But it isn't free and the trial software can be used by you.
As a custom circuit will need to be designed you will have to learn circuit design too .
From the links you provided which does show how a MPPT works, they use a buck converter and a micro to pwm depending on the solar input and step the voltage down to the batterybank voltage.
Ok I'm going to stop here and wait for your input mate.
Regards Bryan